Children's Road Behaviour and Personality

S ummary . 198 children age 5 to 10, from two schools, were filmed on seven days out of a period of two weeks, as they crossed the road at particular sites at the end of each school day. Their behaviour on approaching and crossing the road was analysed from the films and they were classified accordingly into three behaviour groups. Most of the children over 7 years old then completed ESPQ and CPQ personality questionnaires in school. The three behaviour groups were ‘safe,’ ‘careless’ and ‘unsafe.’ The ‘unsafe’ tended to act unpredictably, typically running down the path and into the road without stopping. These were almost all boys. The ‘careless’ would not look round before crossing the road, but would just walk across in a predictable manner. The three groups of boys were found to be significantly different in personality, when the whole profiles were compared. The analysis of boys and girls together from one school also showed different personality profiles in the three behaviour groups.