NCJ Number
138067
Date Published
1990
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This study tested the hypothesis that environmental, personality, and behavioral factors extrapolated from problem behavior theory predict drunk driving (DD), or the transition to DD behavior, among driving adolescents.
Abstract
To test this hypothesis, students from three senior high schools located in different suburban communities in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area were asked to participate. Since the legal minimum driving age in Minnesota is 16, students in the transition years of age 15 to 17 were targeted. The opportunities for DD as well as the cultural norms and acceptance of DD in these primarily white, middle-class communities were assessed through an analysis of current legislation, media influences, and interviews with local police, teachers, and chemical-dependency counselors. Students' perceptions of traffic injuries and of DD were assessed through a series of focus groups before two larger questionnaire surveys were conducted with a cohort of students from the three high schools. The findings confirm that problem behavior theory provides a theoretical framework useful for organizing and identifying factors predictive of DD among adolescents. Personality, perceived environmental, behavior, and demographic factors accounted for approximately 50 percent of the reported variance in DD at baseline among the students who participated in this study. Using these data, the authors recommend that school-based, peer-led education prevention programs be designed to target young adolescents prior to the age at which a driver's license is obtained. 44 references