Community-Wide Youth Impaired Driving Programs: Findings from Student Surveys in1994 and 1996

摘要

Recent projects in five Michigan counties involved activities to prevent impaireddriving by youth, with the support of the Michigan Department of State Police, Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP). Staff at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) served as a resource to these projects. This report summarizes the results of several thousand student surveys administered in four of these counties in 1994 and 1996. The timing of the surveys does not permit interpretation of program effects, but the data represent two cross-sectional viewpoints of students' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding alcohol use, alcohol laws, and impaired driving. Alcohol use and impaired driving by youth are challenging problems nationwide, as well as in the counties surveyed. Several findings highlight the need to enhance and maintain compreshensive, community-based prevention activities. Basic student knowledge about alcohol and alcohol laws was disppointingly low. Students showed little concern about alcohol use, riding with an impaired driver, friends' reactions to an impaired driving arrest, and enforcement. Parents' activity regarding teen drinking should be enhanced. Students' behavior regarding obtaining and drinking alcohol, and riding with impaired drivers remain at too high levels.