A comprehensive review of the scientific literature, State and Federal Government reports, and other sources of information was conducted to determine the magnitude of the problem of teen safety belt use and to identify and summarize programs, interventions, and strategies that can potentially increase safety belt use by teens. Nearly 270 documents were reviewed. Proven effective strategies that increase safety belt use in the general population may have the most immediate and greatest potential for increasing teen safety belt use. These include upgrading State safety belt laws to primary enforcement and conducting highly publicized enforcement of safety belt use laws. With regard to strategies targeting teens, graduated driver licensing laws that explicitly include requirements for safety belt use in all three phases of licensure and provide sanctions that prohibit “graduation” to the next licensing phase if there is a safety belt citation, may be very effective. It appears that community programs that combine education, peer-to-peer persuasion, publicized enforcement, and parental monitoring have some potential for increasing teen safety belt use. Technological solutions hold promise for the future. Enhanced safety belt reminders appear to be effective for all age groups. Safety belt use recorders could allow parents and caregivers to monitor teens’ behavior, if this strategy is accepted by the public. Interlock systems, such as not allowing the radio or cassette/CD player to turn on until all passengers are wearing safety belts, also hold promise and could be very effective in increasing safety belt use, particularly for teens. Combinations of strategies seem to work better than one strategy alone. A community program including education, diversity outreach, highly publicized enforcement, and parental involvement would likely have a substantial effect on teen belt use. However, these strategies would probably need to be sustained for the effect to last over time. While each strategy is not without barriers, careful planning, implementation and evaluation can result in effective programs and add greatly to our knowledge of teen safety belt use. (Author/publisher)
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