BOCYF Project

Committee on Contributions from the Behavioral and Social Sciences in Reducing and Preventing Teen Motor Vehicle Crashes

Publication: Preventing Teen Motor Crashes: Contributions from the Behavioral and Social Sciences: Workshop Report (2007)

This committee was established to draw upon new insights from the behavioral, cognitive, social, and biological sciences, especially in the area of adolescent development and learning processes, that might be applied to prevention strategies to reduce motor vehicle crash rates and to promote responsible behaviors among teen drivers. The committee and workshop participants were asked to apply this new research to three areas of inquiry:

The committee held a workshop to consider these questions and produced a workshop report that examined how fundamental knowledge from the behavioral, cognitive, social, health, and biological sciences could be applied to reduce motor vehicle crashes involving teen drivers and passengers. Particular attention was given to traditional and nontraditional strategies, and informal interventions (e.g., training, supervising, and coaching) and formal interventions (e.g., state licensing programs, law enforcement, insurance practices), as well as opportunities to incorporate this new research base into formal processes associated with screening, licensing, and regulation. Also included among the review were opportunities to influence driving behaviors and decision making processes among teens through informed guidance (e.g., from parents, health care providers and educators, other adult supervision, educational and training programs, social marketing and media messages, and peers). The workshop and report explore the range of risk factors and behaviors associated with motor vehicle crashes involving teen drivers, highlight the relative risk of certain population groups, and identify factors that foster safe and responsible driving behaviors within the different developmental periods of adolescence. The workshop and report address behavioral and social strategies that show promise in reducing crash rates and promoting responsible driving practices involving teen drivers and passengers as well as research priorities that can improve the quality of the knowledge base that guides policy, practice, and prevention programs (e.g., improve knowledge base about maturity, intentionality, risk communication, decision making, and the processes, settings, and interactions that foster safe and unsafe driving behaviors among adolescents).