Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Dec:63:157-161.
doi: 10.1016/j.jsr.2017.10.002. Epub 2017 Oct 18.

Teens' distracted driving behavior: Prevalence and predictors

Pnina Gershon  1 , Chunming Zhu  2 , Sheila G Klauer  3 , Tom Dingus  3 , Bruce Simons-Morton  2
Affiliations

Teens' distracted driving behavior: Prevalence and predictors

Pnina Gershon et al. J Safety Res. 2017 Dec.

Abstract

Introduction: Teen drivers' over-involvement in crashes has been attributed to a variety of factors, including distracted driving. With the rapid development of in-vehicle systems and portable electronic devices, the burden associated with distracted driving is expected to increase. The current study identifies predictors of secondary task engagement among teenage drivers and provides basis for interventions to reduce distracted driving behavior. We described the prevalence of secondary tasks by type and driving conditions and evaluated the associations between the prevalence of secondary task engagement, driving conditions, and selected psychosocial factors.

Methods: The private vehicles of 83 newly-licensed teenage drivers were equipped with Data Acquisition Systems (DAS), which documented driving performance measures, including secondary task engagement and driving environment characteristics. Surveys administered at licensure provided psychosocial measures.

Results: Overall, teens engaged in a potentially distracting secondary task in 58% of sampled road clips. The most prevalent types of secondary tasks were interaction with a passenger, talking/singing (no passenger), external distraction, and texting/dialing the cell phone. Secondary task engagement was more prevalent among those with primary vehicle access and when driving alone. Social norms, friends' risky driving behaviors, and parental limitations were significantly associated with secondary task prevalence. In contrast, environmental attributes, including lighting and road surface conditions, were not associated with teens' engagement in secondary tasks.

Conclusions: Our findings indicated that teens engaged in secondary tasks frequently and poorly regulate their driving behavior relative to environmental conditions. Practical applications: Peer and parent influences on secondary task engagement provide valuable objectives for countermeasures to reduce distracted driving among teenage drivers.

Keywords: Distracted driving; Naturalistic study; Risk; Secondary task engagement; Teen drivers.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Proportion of secondary tasks by type in sampled road segments.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Proportion of road segments for each of the driving conditions with at least one secondary task.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Bingham CR, Zakrajsek JS, Almani F, Shope JT, & Sayer TB (2015). Do as I say, not as I do: Distracted driving behavior of teens and their parents. Journal of Safety Research, 55, 21–29. 10.1016/j.jsr.2015.07.007 (PMID: ). - DOI - PubMed
    1. Carney C, Harland KK, & McGehee DV (2016). Using event-triggered naturalistic data to examine the prevalence of teen driver distractions in rear-end crashes. Journal of Safety Research, 57, 47–52. 10.1016/j.jsr.2016.03.010 (PMID: ). - DOI - PubMed
    1. Carter PM, Bingham CR, Zakrajsek JS, Shope JT, & Sayer TB (2014). Social norms and risk perception: Predictors of distracted driving behavior among novice adolescent drivers. Journal of Adolescent Health, 54(Suppl. 5), S32–S41. 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2014.01.008 (PMID: ). - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dingus TA, Guo F, Lee S, Antin JF, Perez M, Buchanan-King M, & Hankey J (2016). Driver crash risk factors and prevalence evaluation using naturalistic driving data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(10), 2636–2641. 10.1073/pnas.1513271113 (PMID: ). - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Foss RD, & Goodwin AH (2014). Distracted driver behaviors and distracting conditions among adolescent drivers: Findings from a naturalistic driving study. Journal of Adolescent Health, 54(5 Suppl), S50–S60. 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2014.01.005 (PMID: ). - DOI - PubMed

Publication types