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The moderating role of visual perception skills on the association between temperamental fear and children’s pedestrian safety
Journal article   Peer reviewed

The moderating role of visual perception skills on the association between temperamental fear and children’s pedestrian safety

Angelina R. Davis, David C. Schwebel, Anna Johnston, Leslie A. McClure, Casie H. Morgan, Cierra Hopkins Smith, Lindsay M. Stager, Yan Wang, Yixin Wang and Jiabin Shen
Journal of safety research, Vol.98, pp.301-306
09/2026
DOI: 10.1016/j.jsr.2026.07.008

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Abstract

•Childhood pedestrian injuries are a major public health concern.•Data from a larger clinical trial assessed children’s pedestrian safety using a virtual reality environment.•More temperamentally fearful children experienced more collisions.•Better visual discrimination abilities weakened the association between temperament fear and collisions.•Figure-ground perception did not moderate the association between temperamental fear and collisions. Introduction: Child pedestrian safety is a significant public health concern. Children with greater temperamental fear have higher risk of being struck by a vehicle and engage with visual information near roadways differently from less fearful children. This study examined how visual perception skills may moderate the association between temperamental fear and child pedestrian safety in a virtual reality (VR) environment. Method: As part of a larger study, 485 children ages seven- to nine-years completed 21 baseline street crossings in an immersive VR environment. Each participant’s average percent of virtual collisions with a vehicle was considered along with scores for temperamental fear and visual perception skills, as measured by visual discrimination and figure-ground perception. Results: Higher levels of temperamental fear were associated with an increased likelihood of being struck by a virtual vehicle (B = 0.009, p = 0.004). Visual discrimination was a significant moderator of the association, with higher visual discrimination scores weakening the association between temperamental fear and collisions (B = -0.002, p = 0.010). Figure-ground perception was not a significant moderator (B = 0.000, p = 0.766). Conclusions: These results strengthen the evidence linking temperamental fear to unsafe pedestrian behavior and reveal that visual discrimination skills may help children compensate for increased temperamental fear when crossing the street. Practical applications: The study’s findings open potential avenues for intervention programs to augment visual discrimination skills and teach children pedestrian safety.
 Pediatrics Virtual Reality Pedestrian safety Temperamental fear Visual perception skills

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