Dr Richard RoweSenior Lecturer in PsychologyUniversity of Sheffield

The development of risk-taking in young drivers: pre-driving attitudes and psychology-based interventions

The development of risk-taking in young drivers

Dr Richard RoweUniversity of Sheffield

Do we need road safety education?• GDL and new technologies will improve

road safety• But room for improvement will remain• Health behaviour change approaches

working in other domains• No reason why they should not work for

driving as well

How can education be improved?• Need quantitative evaluation to test

efficacy• Contents of interventions

• Will come back to that…• Post-licence education is too late?

• May be attitudes to driving form a long time before starting to drive

Intervention with pre-drivers assumes…• Attitudes to driving form early and remain

constant

• Pre-driving attitudes predict later driving behaviour

G1219 study• UK longitudinal study of adolescent

behavioural development

• Measures of driving atAverage age 17 years (1597 obs)Average age 20 years (1556 obs)

G1219 Study: Driving status

Age 17 Age 200

10203040506070

Pre-driversLearnersFull drivers

%

Attitudes to driving violations scale• 7 items, largely focussed on speed• E.g. Decreasing the speed limit on

motorways is a good idea• In drivers:

• Correlates with self-reported risky driving and crash involvement

• But can also be answered by non-drivers

West & Hall, 1997

Driver Behaviour Questionnaire• Very well used measure (100+ studies)• Assesses Violations

• Speeding, racing away from traffic lights, overtaking on inside

• Correlate of crash involvement

Reason et al., 1990

Attitudes to speed get worse as experience gained

Predicting age 20 behaviour from age 17 attitudes

Full Provisional No licence0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

Time 1 driving statusRowe et al, 2013, Injury Prevention

Learning period is best for intervention• Attitudes predict driver behaviour• Start of trajectory of worsening attitude to

speed (differs for other violations)• Can be included in licence requirement• May work best in programme of education

begun during pre-driving• We will need more research…

Safety Drive Intervention• 45 minute small group presentation

• Target 16-18 year olds• Aimed at learners • Can be done by people with any experience

• Behavioural targets • Speeding, fatigue, alcohol, distraction

Theoretical basis• Self affirmation

• Belief modification guided by the theory of planned behaviour

• Implementation intentions

You are going on a 10-mile journey and the speed limit is 30mph all the way.

How much time would you save by travelling at 35mph?

< 20 minutes< 15 minutes< 10 minutes< 5 minutes

Speeding does not get you there quicker

Preliminary evaluation• Measure attitudes

• Before intervention in 212 participants• After intervention in 243 participants

• Measures• Attitudes to speed, fatigue, alcohol, distraction

Measures before and after Safety Drive

Speeding Alcohol Distraction Fatigue4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Males beforeMales after Female beforeFemale after

Evaluation conclusions• Improvement in attitudes to speeding

• Small to medium effect• Improvement in attitude to alcohol

• But not distraction and fatigue• Supports development of Safety Drive

• And gives pointers on where to make improvements

Limitations of evaluation• Don’t know if effects on attitude will be

durable• Don’t know if attitude effects will translate

to future driving behaviour• It will take large scale, longitudinal studies

to find out

Conclusions• Learner phase may be the best time to

change attitudes• Interventions better if theory driven• Need evaluations that

• Test efficacy• Can identify where to improve

Acknowledgements

Genesis1219Thalia EleyAlice GregoryBarbara Maughan

Social/Health psychologistsPeter HarrisPaul NormanChris Armitage

Research AssistantsLiz AndrewsGareth Jones

Sheffield City CouncilClaire MolyneuxDave LawsonJoe Hockney

The development of risk-taking in young drivers

Dr Richard RoweUniversity of Sheffield