Perceived barrier, risk perception, and social norm attitudes about wearing helmets among college students.

This study assessed perceived barrier, risk perception, and social norm attitudes about bicycle helmets among a sample of 390 college students and determined the extent to which these attitutes related to frequency of bicycle-helmet use. The extent to which students reported wearing a helmet was a habit was also determined. Using frequent, infrequent, and nonusers of helmets as classification variables, stepwise discriminant analysis of attitudinal and habit variables revealed significant discriminant functions for males and females combined, females alone, and males alone. The specific variables that discriminated frequent, infrequent, and nonusers of helmets are insightful because they provide direction and focus for planning health-promotion programs that focus on increasing helmet use among college students.