This scientific poster is concerned with factors which may influence seat belt non-use among Italian secondary school students. These factors were analyzed with respect to gender, geographical factors, socioeconomic status, and "social role" (evaluated with Moreno's sociotest in each classroom). The source of the data was the "Youth and Car Safety '95" survey. This consists of a structured questionnaire that has been administered to students attending the last year from 20 secondary schools (age 18-20 years). Schools were selected from six towns in different Italian regions (northern and southern; metropolitan and provincial). Data presented here refer to a final sample of 1,641 students. Three main conclusions Three main conclusions of the analysis are as follows: (1) Italian youth who participated in the study show, in general, a low rate of self-reported seat belt use; (2) This low rate appears to be due to some extent to a distorted knowledge on the usefulness of seat belts; and (3) psychosocial factors related to peer pressures seem also to play an important role in conditioning seat belt use among youth.
Abstract