Parent-based Intervention to Increase Safe Teen Driving

February 18, 2011 updated by: University of Iowa
We hypothesize that this intervention will increase the quality and quantity of parental interaction on safety driving with newly-licensed teen drivers. 250 parent/teen dyads will be individually randomized into intervention and control groups. The intervention group will receive a tailored, in-person intervention with a trained member of the research team, with follow-up intervention phone calls each month for the 3-month intervention. The control group will be a "usual care" group who will receive driving safety materials available to all new drivers and their parents. Parents and teens will be followed to see if intervention parents meet the intervention's driving goals and to see if the parent and teens report improved driving skills and behaviors in the intervention compared with the control group.

Study Overview

Detailed Description

Drivers in their first six months of licensure have the highest crash rates of all drivers, leading to high rates of injury for themselves, their passengers, and those they hit. Parents play a critical role in the driving experience of their children. Policy approaches, such as Graduated Driver's Licensing Systems, and educational programs that encourage parents to define driving rules and restrictions have shown some success in reducing teen risky driving. However, methods to increase parental involvement in teaching driving skills and encouraging safe driving behaviors have not been widely tested. Such interventions can augment existing GDL systems by increasing parental knowledge and involvement in learning to drive.

The long-range goal of this research is to develop a sustainable and generalizable intervention that will reduce crashes and related injuries among teen drivers by increasing safe driving practices. The investigators propose to conduct a randomized trial of an educational intervention for parents of newly licensed adolescent drivers to increase parental involvement in teaching driving skills and safe driving behavior. Seven schools in small towns in the state of Iowa have agreed to participate. These schools are all within 50 miles of Des Moines, Iowa's largest city, which will lead to driving exposure in rural and town environments.

Parents of newly-licensed teenaged drivers will be the primary subjects enrolled in this study, and parents only will participate in the intervention. Teen drivers will also be enrolled so that they can provide information about their driving attitudes and behaviors; their role will be limited to filling out surveys. The intervention will include a focus on teaching driving skills and behaviors and on effective communication strategies with teens. The intervention content includes specific driving goals that parents meet with their teen drivers that focus on skills and behavior. This project will be conducted in a rural population, so skills for driving on rural roads will be included. The delivery of the intervention will use motivational interviewing, a successful and age-appropriate health behavior communication technique that has shown great success in related health fields.

250 parent/teen dyads will be individually randomized into intervention and control groups. The intervention group will receive a tailored, in-person intervention with a trained member of the research team, with follow-up intervention phone calls each month for the 3-month intervention. The control group will be a "usual care" group who will receive driving safety materials available to all new drivers and their parents. Parents and teens will be followed to see if intervention parents meet the intervention's driving goals and to see if the parent and teens report improved driving skills and behaviors in the intervention compared with the control group.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

163

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Iowa
      • Des Moines, Iowa, United States, 50309
        • Blank Children's Hospital
      • Iowa City, Iowa, United States, 52242
        • University of Iowa

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • parent and teen dyads of newly-licensed teenaged drivers that speak English

Exclusion Criteria:

  • siblings of previously enrolled dyads, teens who will not drive independently after licensure

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention
Parents of new teen drivers receive guidebook to teach driving skills and safety behaviors; individual instruction on parent-child communication about driving; DVD demonstrating safe driving communication; and, 26-page booklet on driving goals and conversation topics
Parents of new teen drivers receive guidebook to teach driving skills and safety behaviors; individual instruction on parent-child communication about driving; DVD demonstrating safe driving communication; and, 26-page booklet on driving goals and conversation topics
No Intervention: Control
Parents receive a Department of Transportation booklet on teen driving

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Driving Safety Communication
Time Frame: 6 months post-intervention
6 months post-intervention
Risky Driving Inventory
Time Frame: 6-months post intervention
6-months post intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Driving citations and crashes
Time Frame: through one year post-intervention
through one year post-intervention
parent risky driving inventory
Time Frame: 6 months post-intervention
6 months post-intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Corinne Peek-Asa, PhD, University of Iowa

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

July 1, 2007

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2010

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2010

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 16, 2009

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 16, 2009

First Posted (Estimate)

November 17, 2009

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

February 21, 2011

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 18, 2011

Last Verified

February 1, 2011

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • CE000947
  • CDC NCIPC R49 CE000947

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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