Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University.
J Pediatr Psychol. 2018 Jun 1;43(5):473-484. doi: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsx147.
This nonrandomized trial evaluated whether classroom-based training in a smartphone-based virtual reality (VR) pedestrian environment (a) teaches schoolchildren to cross streets safely, and (b) increases their self-efficacy for street-crossing.
Fifty-six children, aged 8-10 years, attending primary school in Changsha, China participated. Baseline pedestrian safety assessment occurred in the VR environment and through unobtrusive observation of a subsample crossing a street for 11 days outside school. Self-efficacy was assessed through both self-report and observation. Following baseline, children engaged in the VR for 12 days in their classrooms, honing complex cognitive-perceptual skills required to engage safely in traffic. Follow-up assessment replicated baseline.
Probability of crash in the VR decreased posttraining (0.40 vs. 0.09), and observational data found the odds of looking at oncoming traffic while crossing the first lane of traffic increased (odds ratio [OR] = 2.4). Self-efficacy increases occurred in self-report (proportional OR = 4.7 crossing busy streets) and observation of following crossing-guard signals (OR = 0.2, first lane).
Pedestrian safety training via smartphone-based VR provides children the repeated practice needed to learn the complex skills required to cross streets safely, and also helps them improve self-efficacy to cross streets. Given rapid motorization and global smartphone penetration, plus epidemiological findings that about 75,000 children die annually worldwide in pedestrian crashes, smartphone-based VR could supplement existing policy and prevention efforts to improve global child pedestrian safety.
本非随机试验旨在评估基于智能手机的虚拟现实（VR）行人环境中的课堂培训是否（a）教会学童安全横过马路，以及（b）增加他们横过马路的自我效能感。
共有 56 名 8-10 岁的儿童参加了位于中国长沙的小学的研究。基线行人安全评估在 VR 环境中进行，并通过对一小部分儿童在学校外 11 天横过马路的非干扰观察进行评估。自我效能感通过自我报告和观察进行评估。基线后，儿童在课堂上使用 VR 进行了 12 天的训练，磨练了安全参与交通所需的复杂认知感知技能。后续评估复制了基线评估。
VR 中的碰撞概率在培训后降低（0.40 比 0.09），观察数据发现过马路时看迎面而来的交通流量的几率增加（优势比 [OR] = 2.4）。自我报告和观察跟随交通指挥员信号（OR = 0.2，第一车道）时，自我效能感增加。
通过基于智能手机的 VR 进行行人安全培训，为儿童提供了学习安全横过马路所需的复杂技能所需的反复实践机会，同时也帮助他们提高了横过马路的自我效能感。鉴于快速的机动化和全球智能手机的普及，以及流行病学发现每年全球约有 75,000 名儿童死于行人事故，基于智能手机的 VR 可以补充现有的政策和预防措施，以提高全球儿童行人安全。
