Developing Safe Adolescent Drivers: How Parents Matter

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of how best to develop safe adolescent drivers. It offers both a systematic literature review of relevant studies over the past five years and an exploratory parent education training effort’s results. The latter involved having parents view a public service announcement on modeling positive driving behaviors, followed by post-tests indicating self-reports of influence. A modeling/ imitation theoretical framework guided this exploration given the literature indicating that parental and peer influences are important in youth behaviors. Results indicate that a comprehensive approach to keeping new adolescent drivers safe is necessary. This needs to address the problems of inexperience, underdeveloped judgment, and the quality of the vehicle. Additionally, extra attention is necessary with adolescents according to the severity of any neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism and ADHD that could render them more vulnerable to accidents than others. Comprehensive adolescent driver safety will involve quality graduated driver license laws that specify details of required types of training for different hazards, avoiding distracted driving, and which limit the number of teen passengers. It will also include advanced driver assistance systems and proper vehicle maintenance. The exploratory study results are offered with suggestions for future study.

Authors

• Maya Hickey, Prairie View A&M University

• Camille Gibson, Prairie View A&M University