Teen perceptions of good drivers and safe drivers: implications for reaching adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
To understand definitions of the phrases "good driver" and "safe driver" among teen pre-drivers and early drivers in order to appropriately tailor messages about driving safety.


METHODS
Qualitative study using freelisting, an anthropological research technique, to explore nuances in the ways that teens define a good driver and a safe driver


METHODS
Classes in six high schools each in a different state in the USA.


METHODS
193 adolescent pre-drivers and early drivers, aged 15-17.


METHODS
Meaning of the phrase good driver and safe driver was identified for subgroups of adolescents.


RESULTS
Teen pre-drivers and early drivers define a good driver and a safe driver as one who is cautious, alert, responsible, does not speed, obeys the law, uses seatbelts, and concentrates. There are subtle and potentially important differences in the way that subgroups define a good driver and a safe driver.


CONCLUSIONS
Injury prevention experts need to attend closely to the implicit meanings that teens attach to everyday terms. Freelisting is a method that identifies perceptions about the meaning of health communication messages and suggests differences in meaning among subgroups.
Barg
F K
FK
Center for Injury Research & Prevention, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Fran.Barg@uphs.upenn.edu
Keddem
S
S
Ginsburg
K R
KR
Winston
F K
FK
D000293:Adolescent; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000523:psychology*; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012449:Safety; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D014481:United States