Parent-based Intervention to Increase Safe Teen Driving
Condition: Motor Vehicle Occupant Injury; Teenaged Driver
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      We hypothesize that this intervention will increase the quality and quantity of parental
      interaction on safety driving with newly-licensed teen drivers. 250 parent/teen dyads will be
      individually randomized into intervention and control groups. The intervention group will
      receive a tailored, in-person intervention with a trained member of the research team, with
      follow-up intervention phone calls each month for the 3-month intervention. The control group
      will be a "usual care" group who will receive driving safety materials available to all new
      drivers and their parents. Parents and teens will be followed to see if intervention parents
      meet the intervention's driving goals and to see if the parent and teens report improved
      driving skills and behaviors in the intervention compared with the control group.
    

Detailed description: 
      Drivers in their first six months of licensure have the highest crash rates of all drivers,
      leading to high rates of injury for themselves, their passengers, and those they hit. Parents
      play a critical role in the driving experience of their children. Policy approaches, such as
      Graduated Driver's Licensing Systems, and educational programs that encourage parents to
      define driving rules and restrictions have shown some success in reducing teen risky driving.
      However, methods to increase parental involvement in teaching driving skills and encouraging
      safe driving behaviors have not been widely tested. Such interventions can augment existing
      GDL systems by increasing parental knowledge and involvement in learning to drive.

      The long-range goal of this research is to develop a sustainable and generalizable
      intervention that will reduce crashes and related injuries among teen drivers by increasing
      safe driving practices. The investigators propose to conduct a randomized trial of an
      educational intervention for parents of newly licensed adolescent drivers to increase
      parental involvement in teaching driving skills and safe driving behavior. Seven schools in
      small towns in the state of Iowa have agreed to participate. These schools are all within 50
      miles of Des Moines, Iowa's largest city, which will lead to driving exposure in rural and
      town environments.

      Parents of newly-licensed teenaged drivers will be the primary subjects enrolled in this
      study, and parents only will participate in the intervention. Teen drivers will also be
      enrolled so that they can provide information about their driving attitudes and behaviors;
      their role will be limited to filling out surveys. The intervention will include a focus on
      teaching driving skills and behaviors and on effective communication strategies with teens.
      The intervention content includes specific driving goals that parents meet with their teen
      drivers that focus on skills and behavior. This project will be conducted in a rural
      population, so skills for driving on rural roads will be included. The delivery of the
      intervention will use motivational interviewing, a successful and age-appropriate health
      behavior communication technique that has shown great success in related health fields.

      250 parent/teen dyads will be individually randomized into intervention and control groups.
      The intervention group will receive a tailored, in-person intervention with a trained member
      of the research team, with follow-up intervention phone calls each month for the 3-month
      intervention. The control group will be a "usual care" group who will receive driving safety
      materials available to all new drivers and their parents. Parents and teens will be followed
      to see if intervention parents meet the intervention's driving goals and to see if the parent
      and teens report improved driving skills and behaviors in the intervention compared with the
      control group.
    

Intervention name(s): Teen driving intervention
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Parents of new teen drivers receive guidebook to teach driving skills and safety behaviors; individual instruction on parent-child communication about driving; DVD demonstrating safe driving communication; and, 26-page booklet on driving goals and conversation topics
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: motor vehicle; accidents, traffic; prevention and control