چكيده لاتين :
Introduction
In recent years, violations of traffic laws in Iran has become one of the major problems that has created more physical, financial, and social damages. Unfortunately, Iran is one of the worst places in this regard. Traffic accidents were the first cause of death in Iran for during the years 2001 to 2010. According to estimations, 66 people were killed per day in traffic accidents during those years. In other words, 35 out of every 100000 Iranians were killed in the accidents. Etiology of traffic rules violation, like other social disorders and crimes, is very complicated. Previous studies dealing with violation of traffic rules by motorcycle users have mostly focused on risk factors such as social and environmental factors (alcohol consumption, drug misuse, insufficient light, illegal speed, using cellphone, lack of law enforcement by traffic police), psychological factors (aggression, type A personality, hasty personality, low IQ, depression, low motivation), and physiological factors (attention deficit, biological rhythm, fatigue, disease, malfunction of the eyes), and other factors (like age, gender, friction with other people, family trouble, and multiple tasks). One of the factors attracting scholar’s attention in recent years, is the effects of social capital and its subcategories such as social support in obeying or disobeying traffic rules. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between social support and obeying or disobeying traffic rules.
Materials and Methods
This is a cross-sectional, case-control study. Data was collected from the traffic police office and from the streets of Yazd City, in July and August, 2012. The statistical population includes all the citizens who used motorcycles to do their daily tasks such as shopping, going to work, moving passengers, or recreation. For sample size, 384 motorcycle users in two groups of law-abiding users (192) and law-breaking users (192) were investigated. This division is based on traffic rules in Iran. Law-abiding users were distinguished from law-breaking ones considering how much they obey riding rules such as wearing safety helmet, stopping before the red light, having motorcycle riding license, and moving within the lines designed for motorcycle users. Low-breakers were those who did not observe the above standards, and instead displayed behaviors such as careening among cars, riding in sidewalks, and bothering pedestrians. Three traffic experts identify law-abiding and law-breaker users. The data was collected by multidimensional perceived social support scale and analyzed by the MANOVA method.
Discussion of Results and Conclusions
The mean age of law-abiding users was 26.07 with standard deviation being 8.61. The mean age of law-breaking users was 24.60 with a standard deviation of 7.74. Most of the subjects were in the age group of 15-30 year-old. Concerning the percentage of users who had primary education, it was higher among low-breaker users (41.8%) than the other group (32.9%). The groups were relatively similar regarding income, residency, marital status, and purposes of using motorcycles without any significant differences. Concerning the frequency of having experiences of breaking rules, they were different. That is the frequency of violating traffic rules was significantly higher in the law-breaking group (23.9% compared to 13%). In Comparison, the level of social support was 30.2 % among law-abiding users and 21.4 among law-breaking users. Results revealed that there is a significant difference in total social support (P < .05), perceived social support by family (P < .01), and perceived social support by significant others (P < .01). Deficiency of social support due to weakness of social networks can explain peopleʹs willingness to engage in risky driving behaviors and violations.
