Aug 31 2006
Teenagers who share their parent's understanding of parent-decreed driving rules are less likely to take risks behind the wheel, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Maryland.
"Very often a parent will give advice and admonishments and guidance, but the teen driver may not always hear exactly, or process, what the parent tells them," said lead study author Kenneth Beck, Ph.D.
Beck's team set out to learn not only whether parents said they were monitoring and managing their teens' driving, but if teens had accepted the rules that were established.
Beck calls it "concordance," which he says is "the degree to which the parents and teens are on the same page."
In the study, published in the current issue of the American Journal of Health Behavior, researchers used a phone interview to ask more than 440 parent-teen pairs about each household's driving rules.
The parents and teens were asked similar questions such as, "Are you allow to drive after dark?" "What would be the consequences if you got a ticket for driving too fast?" "Is your child permitted to drive with teenage passengers?"
Parents and teens were interviewed separately about a month after the teens received their license. The researchers checked in at four months — and again at nine months — to ask how often teens took driving risks like zooming through an intersection as the light is turning yellow or driving in a way to show off to other people.
"Teens that strongly agreed with their parents on permitted driving conditions were more likely to be driving in a safer, riskier-free way nine months later," said Beck, a professor in the Department of Public and Community Health at the University of Maryland.
To promote more family monitoring and conversations, Beck said he'd like to see state motor vehicle departments incorporate written parent-teen driving agreements into the application-and-licensing process. Teens and parents sign the document that codifies the driving conditions under which a teen can drive.
"I think state motor vehicle departments could be handing these out as mandatory," Beck said. "There are many things they already do to delay the teens' full-blown, unfettered access to the road anytime, anywhere. But I think they need to also deliberately target parents."
Beck's study received support from the Maryland Department of Transportation and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Researcher Paul Juarez, Ph.D., said the study may be most informative for communities that mirror the somewhat affluent demographics of Gaithersburg, Md., where the study was conducted.
"In the families where the communication isn't as strong, it may be too late. I don't want to be pessimistic — but it's not going to have the same level of impact if you have strained relationships and the kids get their messages from their peers," said Juarez, who studies risky teen driving and is vice chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn.
"In those families we need to look at other types of messaging that will reach students," Juarez said. That might include community-wide campaigns that encourage teens to encourage each other to wear seat belts, drive safely or choose a designated driver, he said.
"Maybe you shouldn't put all your eggs into the parents' basket," Juarez said.
By Taunya English, Science Writer
Health Behavior News Service