Alcohol-Impaired and Distracted Driving Safety Messages
Communication campaigns are among the most widely used efforts to promote traffic safety and can be used to promote safe driving practices and knowledge of traffic laws, and otherwise educate the public. One way campaigns could be improved is to use behavior change theory in campaign development. Behavior change theories are developed to explain and understand how to change behavior. They are comprised of psychological factors called constructs, such as self-efficacy and risk perception, that are important in campaigns to change behavior. These theories have been used extensively and successfully in several areas of public health such as in promoting exercise, smoking cessation, use of sunscreen, and safe sex, and they are found in traffic safety media campaigns. Traffic safety campaigns grounded in theories of behavior change that have been used successfully to change other risky health behaviors have a higher likelihood of being effective.
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