Seat belt use behavior among teen students: The role of their demographic characteristics and family members' behaviors

Background and Objectives: The lack of seat belt use is considered as one of the most common behavioral factors encountering the life of a driver or an occupant to traffic injury risk. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between seat belt-wearing behavior among school students and their demographic characteristics and family members' behaviors. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 942 students (497 girls and 445 boys) were included and randomly selected from junior high schools in Tabriz, Iran. A questionnaire on the seat belt-wearing behavior of students and their parents was used to collect data, followed by applying a generalized estimating equation approach to identify the correlation of pupils' traffic behaviors to account for intra-cluster correlation. Results: The results revealed that seat belt-wearing behaviors among male students were significantly more frequent compared to female students (P < 0.0001). The mother's occupation, the father's age, and the student's educational level had a significant impact on seat belt wearing among the students (P < 0.01). In addition, student's adherence to traffic rules was correlated with their seat belt-wearing behavior. Finally, the seat belt-wearing behavior of parents and siblings had a significant positive effect on students' behaviors (P < 0.01). Conclusion: Male students further demonstrated risky behaviors compared to their female peers, and family has an important role in improving the seat belt-wearing behavior of their children. Therefore, involving adolescents' families including their parents and sibling can be important and helpful in developing preventive programs for promoting the use of seat belts among adolescents