Dr Richard Rowe Senior Lecturer in Psychology University 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 Rowe University 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 at Average age 17 years (1597 obs) Average age 20 years (1556 obs)

G1219 Study: Driving status %

Licence stage %

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 Time 1 driving status Rowe 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 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

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 Genesis1219 Thalia Eley Alice Gregory Barbara Maughan Social/Health psychologists Peter Harris Paul Norman Chris Armitage Research Assistants Liz Andrews Gareth Jones Sheffield City Council Claire Molyneux Dave Lawson Joe Hockney

The development of risk- taking in young drivers Dr Richard Rowe University of Sheffield