Citation

Cohn LD, Hernandez D, Byrd T, Cortes M. Am. J. Public Health 2002; 92(12): 1918-1920.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Texas at El Paso, 79968, USA. lcohn@utep.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, American Public Health Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12453809

PMCID

PMC3221488

Abstract

A school-based, bilingual intervention was developed to increase seat belt use among families living along the Texas-Mexico border. The intervention sought to increase seat belt use by changing perceived norms within the community (i.e., making the nonuse of seat belts less socially acceptable). The intervention was implemented in more than 110 classrooms and involved more than 2100 children. Blind coding, validity checks, and reliability estimates contributed to a rigorous program evaluation. Seat belt use increased by 10% among children riding in the front seat of motor vehicles in the intervention community, as compared with a small but nonsignificant decline in use among control community children. Seat belt use among drivers did not increase.