Study Reveals Parent Involvement Key To Safe Teen Driving

Anthony Fontanelle
March 16, 2007

It has been widely documented that the number one killer of teens in today’s world is traffic accidents. Even though this fact is known to most parents, they are still not aware of the causes of such tragic accidents and that they are contributors to the driving attitude of their teens.

In a recent survey done by The Allstate Foundation, it was revealed that parents of teenagers are unknowingly pushing their teens to have negative driving attitudes. The survey polled over a thousand parents of teenagers who are aged 15 to 17. The study shows the involvement of parents on teens plays a key role on how safe their teenagers drive.

Of the more than 1,000 parents polled, nearly half of them think that traffic accidents involving teenagers is caused by drunk driving. This shows that a significant number of parents do not know that the foremost cause of traffic accidents involving teen is driver error, speeding, and distracted driving.

The study also shows that a majority of respondents are willing to teach their teenage children how to drive safely and some 60 percent of them are not aware of the Graduated Driver Licensing law. The law provides that parents are required to supervise their children while driving. The law also states that parents are responsible to restrict their teenagers from driving at night.

As a result of the wide misinformation of majority of parents, an Allstate Foundation Teen Driving Program Advisory Board member offered tips for parents. Laurence Steinberg Ph.D. has these simple strategies he wants to share with parents: “As parents, we need to show our teens from an early age the importance of safe driving by modeling good behavior and treating driving as a privilege. Practicing what we preach, discussing the issue regularly with our teens and talking with our peers are simple actions parents can take that will go a long way in keeping teens safer on the road.”

Steinberg is a parenting expert and he also is a professor of Psychology at Temple University. He is an author as well and two of his recent works is “The 10 Basic Principles of Good Parenting" and "Your Adolescent: A Parent's Guide for Ages 10 to 20.”

One simple tip from the organization is for parents to talk to their children at an early age about safe driving. This is in response to the result of the survey that shows parents do not talk to their children about road safety until their children are ready to get a license. The study revealed that only 27 percent of the respondents discuss safe driving when their children are 12 years old or younger. This pales in contrast to other issues parents talk to their children about.

Of all the respondents polled for the survey, 77 percent said that they discuss the dangers of smoking while their children are 12 years old or younger, 72 percent talk to their young children about the dangers of taking drugs, and 70 percent of the respondents said that they also discuss peer pressure with their teens.

The result of the study shows that even effective brake parts like those found in Active Brakes Direct are not enough to keep teenage drivers away from traffic accidents. Involvement of parents on their teen’s driving attitude is equally if not more important. Source:  Amazines.com