Addressing the root of adolescent distracted driving

Each year, numerous individuals perish in vehicle incidents involving distracted young drivers. A new investigation focuses on one prevalent type of distraction, mobile phone use, analyzing how frequently adolescents engage in this perilous conduct and the underlying reasons.

A collective of public health scholars led by Rebecca Robbins, a professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School, surveyed teenagers nationwide to understand how they utilize their phones while driving and ways to mitigate such actions.

Their findings indicated that seven out of ten high school students acknowledged using or glancing at their phones while navigating — many instances lasting two seconds or more — for about 20 percent of each journey.

“That’s a significant percentage — putting both themselves and the surrounding public in jeopardy,” noted Robbins.

The duration required to read or send a text, activate navigation apps, or browse social media, she elaborated, correlates with a 5.5 times higher probability of a collision.

The majority of the teenagers surveyed stated they believed their peers participated in distracted driving. Robbins explained that adolescents strongly associate their perceptions of peer behavior with their own actions. Many perceive it as normal to check their phones while driving, despite its dangers.

“Young individuals maintain notions that looking at their phones offers advantages.”

Rebecca Robbins

“Young individuals maintain notions that looking at their phones offers advantages,” she remarked. “It provides entertainment. It helps them reach their destinations. This represents a maladaptive belief that requires correction through behavioral interventions.”

Among participants who disclosed phone usage while driving, the primary reasons included entertainment (65 percent), followed by texting (40 percent) and navigation (30 percent).

Among participants who disclosed phone usage while driving, the leading reasons were…

entertainment

65%

texting

40%

navigation

30%

Nevertheless, Robbins highlighted that three out of ten respondents indicated they practiced focused driving.

“Certain young individuals had positive influences around them, role models demonstrating safe driving habits such as refraining from phone usage while driving, which correlated negatively with reports of young people engaging in distracted driving,” she stated.

Furthermore, Robbins mentioned that adolescents’ perceptions regarding their capability to make informed decisions influenced their behavior.

“We also discovered a considerable correlation between self-efficacy and distracted driving, indicating that stronger self-efficacy beliefs — or the belief that they could resist distractions, stow their phones in the backseat, activate ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode, or apply other safe driving practices — were inversely associated with distracted driving,” she explained. 

Robbins conveyed that insights obtained from the study could be utilized to devise public health campaigns and behavioral interventions akin to those advocating for seat belt use. “This research uncovered several promising pathways for future inquiries, such as a campaign promoting the advantages of enabling ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode and empowering adolescents to activate it, or have it automatically engage, during driving.”