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Road-Crossing Behavior in Complex Traffic Situations: A Comparison of Children With and Without ADHD

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Abstract

All children are vulnerable to pedestrian injuries, but previous research suggests children diagnosed with ADHD may have elevated risk. Child pedestrian injury risk also increases with increasing traffic volume and speed. The current study examined three hypotheses: (a) Pedestrian behavior of children with ADHD is riskier than that of typically-developing children; (b) Children’s pedestrian behavior is riskier with increased traffic complexity; and (c) Pedestrian behavior of children with ADHD is influenced more by complex traffic situations than behavior of typically-developing children. A sample of 38 children ages 8–12 years, 45% diagnosed with ADHD, completed 21 virtual street-crossings, 7 in each of three levels of traffic complexity. Outcome measures included unsafe crossings, ratio of looking at traffic by time, start-delay to enter the road, time to contact with oncoming vehicles, and time waiting to cross. A repeated measure MANOVA and follow-up tests showed that all children had more unsafe crossings, shorter start-delays and shorter TTCs when exposed to increased traffic complexity compared to lighter traffic. Children with ADHD had more unsafe crossings than typically-developing children. Further, compared to typically-developing children, ADHD children had comparatively more unsafe crossings, lower time to contact and longer wait-time in more complex traffic environments. Executive function deficits among children with ADHD likely influence their behavior in complex traffic environments. Implications of the results for policy-making and preventive strategies are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

Research reported in this publication was partially supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01HD088415. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. We would like to thank Dr. Amin Yazdi, the head of Amin Child Center for helping us to conduct this research. Finally, our sincerest thanks to all the families who participate in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Azadi Sq., PO Box: 1518, 9177948974, Mashhad, Iran

    Zahra Tabibi & Hamid Zolfaghari

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, USA

    David C. Schwebel

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  1. Zahra Tabibi
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  2. David C. Schwebel
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  3. Hamid Zolfaghari
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Correspondence to Zahra Tabibi.

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All work was conducted in accordance with the APA Ethics Code and was approved by the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Review Board. All parents provided informed consent and all children provided assent to participate.

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Tabibi, Z., Schwebel, D.C. & Zolfaghari, H. Road-Crossing Behavior in Complex Traffic Situations: A Comparison of Children With and Without ADHD. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 53, 1186–1193 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-021-01200-y

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