Evaluating pre-driver road safety education interventions for secondary school students Margaret Ryan, Dr. Michael Gormley, Trinity College Dublin 1

Outline Background Aims Methodology Results Conclusions 2

Young driver problem Irish Drivers year olds – 5 times greater risk of dying than other drivers (RSA, 2009) Engineering – Enforcement – Education Pre-drivers − Development of risky attitudes in adolescence (Harré et al., 2000) – Cradle attitudes, grave consequences (Waylen & McKenna, 2002) Pre-driver education in secondary schools 3

Aims of the Project Summative Evaluation – Impact of 5 types of pre-driver education Knowledge - Cognitive Skills - Attitudes – Specify the influence of proximal and distal factors Formative Evaluation of RSA programmes Why evaluate? – Assess effectiveness – Suggest possible improvements Enhance student learning Increased efficiency Delivery / Content / Cost – Ensure that we do no harm 4

Participants All second-level schools in ROI invited 5 DEMOGRAPHICS Males 54%Females 46% Urban Dwellers 62%Rural Dwellers 38% Parents with 3 rd level Ed. 46%Parents with 2 nd Level Ed 39% Programme Groups / Clusters Number of students Baseline (T1) Post-intervention (T2) Follow-up (T3) Programme A Programme B Programme C Group D Group E Controls Whole School Drop-out Total

Questionnaire Measures FACTORFOCUS DemographicsAge / Gender / Location / School Type / Prog. Type Direct Experience Road User / Driving / Crash Experience Manchester D. B. Questionnaire (Reason et al.1990) Observational Learning Exposure to aberrant driving styles Personality Sensation Seeking - AISS Scale (Arnett, 1994) Impulsiveness - BIS-Short Form (Spinella, 2007) 5-Factor Model - IPIP (Goldberg, 1998) Factual Knowledge Baseline General Knowledge Post-Intervention multiple-choice quiz (Rules of the Road) Cognitive Skill - Risk Perception Objective and Subjective risk estimations Self-efficacy beliefs Vignette Programme Evaluation Evaluation of programme content & delivery Suggestions for programme improvement 6

7 o 7 o

Cognitive Skills - Risk Perception Vignette “Mark is 17 years old and has had a learner permit to drive for 6 months. One Saturday night while his parents are away he decides to use his dad’s car to take some of his friends to a disco in a nearby town. The disco finishes at 2am and on the way home Mark decides to see how fast the car can go. What are the possible consequences of this?” 8

Vignette - Consequences ConsequenceBaseline Post- interventionFollow-up Crash85.7%88.0%85.3% Death51.3%43.1%50.7% Injury48.8%33.6%38.7% Caught by Gardai38.2%31.8%38.1% Damage to cars/property34.5%23.9%17.1% Loose Control22.9%14.9% Legal problems21.7%13.9%3.2% Trouble with parents15.6%13.0%17.5% Increased risk/danger11.5%13%9.3% Moral issues5.3%2.3%1.0% Nothing12.9%12.3%9.5% Benefits4.9%2.6%1.5% 9

10 Prototypical Images of Drivers who Speed o Risky Impatient Selfish Immature Unrealistic

11 Prototypical Images of Drivers who Speed o Cool Popular Responsible Smart Skilful

Students’ Views Enjoyable aspects of DE courses – Classroom-based groups – DVD – Single session groups – Practicals & Lectures – Only 3% didn’t enjoy the course Beneficial aspects – Learning the Rules of the Road Suggested Improvements – Include / extend practical elements – Add Rules of the Road – Course is satisfactory 12

Summary and conclusions Pre-driving adolescents have some knowledge, risk perception skills and attitudes towards speeding Pre-driver education has a small short-term effect on knowledge, risk perception skills and attitudes Consistent effect of impulsivity on baseline scores Students and teachers believe that the courses are beneficial Students want more practical content Study limitations – Self-report – Study underpowered – More groups needed for HLM 13

Thanks for your attention! 14 Any questions?

References Arnett, J. (1994). Sensation seeking: A new conceptualization and a new scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 16(2), Clinton, K. M., & Lonero, L. (2006). Evaluating Driver Education Programs (pp. 335). Washington DC: AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. Goldberg, L. R., Johnson, J. A., Eber, H. W., Hogan, R., Ashton, M. C., Cloninger, C. R., et al. (2006). The International Personality Item Pool and the future of public-domain personality measures. Journal of Research in Personality(40), Reason, J. T., Manstead, A. S. R., Stradling, S. G., Baxter, J. S., & Campbell, K. (1990). Errors and violations on the road: a real distinction? Erognomics(33), Spinella, M. (2007). Normative data and a short form of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. Intern. Journal Neuroscience(117),