Testing Training Programs to Improve Children's Pedestrian Behaviors

NCT03960047 | Completed Results

• 1 other identifier: 1R21HD093878-01A1
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 98
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Motor vehicle pedestrian injury is a critical issue for school children.1-4 Each year in the US, over 4900 pedestrians are killed and another 207,000 are injured, and about 25% of these pedestrian events involve school-age children. This research focuses on 7-8 year olds, who constitute a high-risk group for pedestrian injury. At these ages children regularly cross streets without supervision and they struggle both with selecting where to cross and determining how to cross. Research has shown, however, that children are capable of benefiting from effective behavioral training in pedestrian behavior. The proposed research addresses the issue of crossing skills deficits and will: (1) implement a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test two alternative training programs to teach 7-8 year-olds where and how to cross streets safely; and (2) conduct an economic analysis to reveal cost:benefit indices for both. Meta-analyses of pedestrian training programs reveal that behavioral training in a traffic environment most reliably produces some degree of improvement in crossing skills. Thus, 'street-side training' is often described as the gold standard. Implementation, however, poses many practical problems related to implementation. The investigators have addressed this issue by developing a training system that uses a virtual pedestrian environment and extends past VR systems by having children fully cross the street and offering the unique capability of teaching both where and how to cross, with skills in each domain measured separately so exactly what is learned and what component crossing behaviors improved can be precisely determined for each individual child. Children (7-8 years) will be randomized to one of three groups (balanced for sex): street-side training, virtual-reality training, and a no-intervention control, with the same pre- and post- measures taken across groups. Primary analyses will test for changes in indices of where and how to cross, as well as attention to traffic when crossing. An economic analysis of the two programs will reveal their relative cost effectiveness. These results will provide essential knowledge to inform future decisions about 'best practices' in child pedestrian injury prevention through behavioral training.

Conditions

Child Behavior

Keywords

children; crossing streets; training

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (3)

• Index of Crossing Safely: Hit by Car

  Proportion of trials on which child would be hit by a car when crossing (based on average walking speed)

  6 weeks

• Index of Crossing Safely: Where to Cross

  Proportion of all trials on which the child chose the correct safe place to cross (hill, blind curve, parked cars); scores can range between 0 and 1.0

  6 weeks

• Index of Crossing Safely: When to Cross

  Average inter-vehicle gap selected across all trials (in seconds); higher numbers indicate safer crossings (chose larger gaps between cars)

  6 weeks

Study Arms (3)

Intervention: Virtual Reality Training

EXPERIMENTAL

Uses virtual reality to train children to cross streets

Behavioral: Virtual Reality Training

Intervention: Streetside Training

EXPERIMENTAL

Train children to cross streets using real traffic in curbside locations

Behavioral: Streetside Training

Control

NO INTERVENTION

Receives no intervention

Interventions

Virtual Reality Training BEHAVIORAL

This group gets trained to cross streets using virtual reality

Intervention: Virtual Reality Training

Streetside Training BEHAVIORAL

This group is trained to cross streets based on streetside experiences

Intervention: Streetside Training

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 7 Years - 9 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• Healthy
• English speaking

You may not qualify if:

• History of pedestrian injury

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Guelph: lead

Study Sites (1)

University of Guelph

Guelph, Ontario, N1G2W1, Canada

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Child Behavior

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavior

Results Point of Contact

• Title: Professor Barbara A. Morrongiello
• Organization: University Of Guelph

bmorrong@uoguelph.ca

5195461637

Study Officials

• Barbara Morrongiello, PhD

  University of Guelph

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Publication Agreements

• PI is Sponsor Employee: No
• Restrictive Agreement: No

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor in Psychology

Model Details: Control Intervention: Virtual Reality training Intervention: Streetside training

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: May 9, 2019
• First Posted: May 22, 2019
• Study Start: April 1, 2019
• Primary Completion: October 30, 2022
• Study Completion: October 30, 2022
• Last Updated: September 4, 2025
• Results First Posted: September 4, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-08

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

CA (1)