Effectiveness of bibliotherapy on knowledge regarding prevention of road traffic accidents among children in selected schools at Mangalore

Road traffic accidents (RTAs) in children is uneventful but predictable challenge hence it is preventable through early knowledge. Road traffic injuries caused an estimated 1.24 million deaths worldwide in 2010 (WHO). The National centre for injury prevention and control reports approximately 1,68,000 children were injuried and almost 1,000 children died in motor vehicle accident in 2008. Bibliotherapy being successful to know the consequences, find solution, self-development by self-understanding; this as an intervention can help the children to face challenge of RTAs.

To evaluate the effectiveness of bibliotherapy in terms of gain in knowledge regarding prevention of RTA.

An evaluative approach quasi experimental design was adopted for this study for which 100 school children were selected through Probability simple randomsampling technique.

Majority of the subjects were at the age of 10 years, 45% came to school by walk and 75% knew how to ride bicycle. Theoverall findings of the study revealed majority (66%) had average knowledge level before Bibliotherapy intervention which rose to 67% with good knowledge level. The major findings of the study were mean post-test knowledge score which were significantly higher (19.18) than their mean pre-test knowledge score (11.79). The ‘t’_cal(15.447) was higher than ‘t’_tab(t₉₉ =2), p<0.05 at 5% level of significance showing effectiveness of bibliotherapy.

There is a need to focus on road safety education for young children which will facilitate as a prevention programs on road traffic accidents. Hence, Bibliotherapy can be simple yet effective method to improve knowledge level of the children in their own understanding level.