Sociocultural perspective on child occupant protection.

During the past decade substantial effort has been devoted to increasing the use of child safety restraints. This has involved educational programs and, more recently, legislation mandating restraint use by children. Neither of these approaches has had major documented effects on proper restraint use. Misuse is currently high and use decreases dramatically among toddlers and older children. It is maintained that the complexity of the problems of nonuse and misuse has not been fully recognized. A more comprehensive perspective on the issue is presented, focusing on the social and cultural issues involved in attempting to change parental behavior regarding their children's use of restraints. A structured approach to programs for the promotion of safety restraint use suggested by this perspective is presented, highlighting actions that are already being taken and those that need to be taken to develop a comprehensive attack on both nonuse and misuse of safety restraints.