Research Grants to Prevent Unintentional Injuries

University Of Iowa, Iowa City IA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

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