The University of New Mexico

NEWS RELEASE

Media Contact: Karen Wentworth
(505) 277-5627 kwent2@unm.edu

September 2, 2008

UNM C&J Student Research Reveals Majority of Teens Have Ridden with Impaired Driver

Research by two UNM Communication & Journalism graduate students reveals dangerous correlations between young people riding with impaired adults and risky driving behaviors. Graduate students Laura Burton and Tatjana Rosev surveyed more than 1,000 students at Rio Grande and Albuquerque High Schools and Albuquerque Academy.

They found:

• 51% of all students have been passengers in a car with an impaired adult at the wheel.
• 68% of the time, the impaired adult driving the car was a family member.
• 13% have ridden with an impaired adult more than 10 times.
• The more often a teen has ridden with an impaired adult, the less risky they view that behavior.
• The more frequently teens rode with an impaired adult, the more frequently they engaged in risky behaviors.

“These are minors and we tell them not to ride with a drunk driver, but if it’s their dad and he’s drunk, there are consequences for the teen to say no to a drunk dad. It is a very complex and concerning issue,” Burton said.

The study was sponsored by SafeTeen New Mexico and was meant to measure whether or not teens that attended a SafeTeen assembly on the dangers of drinking and driving changed their behavior. It is expands on and refines a survey taken in 2007. The teens at the three schools answered a series of survey questions before and after the safe driving assemblies.

Although the assemblies generally had positive effects on students’ assessments of risky teen driving behaviors, Burton and Rosev recommended that the SafeTeen board look for ways to teach students how to resist riding with parents who have been drinking.

“It’s also important to know that we did find that 40 percent of the respondents we surveyed had refused to ride with an impaired adult. At least some kids did know how to say no, but there was a vast majority who didn’t have those tools,” Rosev said. “It’s very, very important to talk with these kids and give them some tools about how to tell their mom or dad, ‘Listen, I don’t want to do this’.”

The survey broke down student responses by grade and found that the SafeTeen assemblies had the greatest effect on sophomores. The assemblies also had the greatest effect on males. Male students’ perceptions of the dangers associated with risky behaviors improved after participating in an assembly. Female students were more willing to wear seatbelts after participating in the assemblies, but did not say they would make any other statistically significant behavior changes.

The researchers also included questions about driving while text messaging. The findings revealed that more than half the students surveyed engaged in text messaging while driving. Burton and Rosev say they would like to be able to explore that issue further. They are now working with their advisor, Associate Professor of Communication & Journalism Richard Schaefer, to try to find funding for further research into teens who drive while text messaging. Schaefer said there has been very little research done in this area and it would be worthwhile to examine it.

SafeTeen New Mexico is a community based non-profit organization that partners with public and private entities to fund and create high school programs to educate teens about the consequences of poor decisions related to risky driving behaviors and other critical issues such as under-age drinking, date violence, body image, depression and suicide.

###