The present study aimed to describe the road user behaviour of New Zealand adolescents and to investigate the applicability of the Adolescent Road user Behaviour Questionnaire (ARBQ) to New Zealand adolescents. In total 944 adolescents were surveyed in the North and South islands of New Zealand. Factor analysis of the scale produced three factors which had acceptableinternal reliability and were very similar to those found in the originalresearch. The three factors were ôunsafe crossing behaviourö, ôplaying onthe roadö and ôplanned protective behaviourö. This research also found that males and those who were at least part Maori were more likely to put themselves at risk by playing on the road. Furthermore, those who identifiedthemselves as being part Maori also engaged in unsafe road crossing behaviour more often than Caucasian and Asian adolescents. Interestingly, only the interaction effect between age and sex was significantly related to engagement in planned protective behaviour. However, despite differences between New Zealand and England, and differences in the sample characteristics, the scale appeared to be measuring the same latent variables. Therefore, this research confirmed that the ARBQ is a useful tool for investigatingthe behaviour of adolescents on the road. (A) Reprinted with permission from Elsevier.
Abstract