Applying extended theory of planned behaviour to develop a high school traffic education programme

Abstract

Although many traffic safety programmes have been developed to date, few integrate the identification of the causes of risky riding behaviours with the creation of targeted educational content. Therefore, the objective of this study is to develop an educational programme with appropriate content to raise awareness among high school students by targeting the latent factors affecting their intention to engage in risky riding behaviours. To accomplish this goal, this study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, a TPB model and personality traits were applied to identify the causes of dangerous motorcycle-riding behaviours among high school students in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, Vietnam. A total of 205 samples were analysed from the 399 questionnaires distributed to 10 classes. The data underwent exploratory factor analysis (EFA), partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), and Importance-Performance Map Analysis (IPMA) to identify the most significant latent factors influencing the intention to engage in risky riding behaviours. In the second phase, the findings from the PLS-SEM were used as a reference for the traffic safety education programme, which was combined with rational emotional behaviour therapy (REBT) to develop the programme’s content. Two classes, corresponding to the intervention and control groups, were selected from the initial phase to implement the developed education programme. To test the programme’s effectiveness, a Wilcoxon signed-ranks test was conducted, evaluating the level of improvement in awareness before and after participation using effect size (r). The findings indicate that the traffic safety education programme influenced attitude (r = 0.314) and descriptive norm (r = 0.712), thereby reducing their influence on the intention (r = 0.494) to engage in risky riding behaviours. This demonstrates the effectiveness of educational programmes in reducing risky riding behaviours among students. The study design, analytical methods, and results of the present study could assist educators to develop traffic safety education programs customized to specific areas, resulting in promoting efforts aimed at reducing risky riding behaviours among students.