Abstract:
The purposes of this research were 1) to investigate the factors affecting teenage motorcycle racing behaviour in Phangnga Province and 2) to propose some guidelines for protecting and controlling the teenagers involved in this activity. This research employed a qualitative design and studied a sample group of teenagers in Phang-nga. The instruments used for collecting the data included non- participation observations and in-depth interviews. There were 113 main informants that consisted of teenagers aged 1321 years old who enjoyed motorcycle racing, the teenagers parents, traffic police officers, the owners of motorcycle modifying shops, and the public who were affected by the teenagers motorcycle racing.
There were 3 factors affecting the teenagers behaviour regarding motorcycle racing: 1) teenagers age, sex, interest, challenge, recklessness; 2) family support and teaching; 3) environment friends, media, condition of roads, prizes and rewards. Finally the researcher proposed 5 steps to follow in order to protect and control the teenagers motorcycle racing behaviour as follows: 1) teenagers there should be various activities provided for teenagers; activities concerning motorcycles and roads should be more creative and useful, especially activities that promote how to ride motorcycles safely; training programs for children age 612 years about road traffic safety should be encouraged; 2) family the family should be strong and united; parents should give advice about media and how to spend money wisely and arrange more appropriate activities for their children; 3) educational institutions schools should provide various curricular activities, especially regarding traffic laws and technical colleges should educate their students about how to drive their motorcycles safely; 4) community the community should encourage teenagers to participate in the communitys activities and pay close attention to the teenagers motorcycle racing behaviour; 5) government the government should allocate sufficient budget to educational institutions and the community to arrange activities for teenagers to build their awareness about how to use the roads safely enforcement of laws to control the motorcycle shops and traffic violation should be encouraged.