Re-education of young driving offenders: effects on self-reports of driver behavior.
BACKGROUND
Offending drivers are often re-educated, but these courses have seldom been shown to have any safety effects.


METHODS
An on-line improvement course for offending drivers below the age of 25 was evaluated with several driver inventories.


RESULTS
The drivers reported higher levels of aggression, stress, sensation seeking, drunk driving, and driving violations, six months after the course than before. However, these levels were lower than those of controls, indicating that the initially low levels for the education group were due to socially desirable responding, as measured by a lie scale, an effect that waned after the course.


CONCLUSIONS
The results can be interpreted as a positive effect of the education, although this conclusion is tentative and not in agreement with all effects in the data.


CONCLUSIONS
The results are in disagreement with previous evaluation studies using the same or similar instruments, and show the need to include controls for social desirability in self-report studies.
af Wåhlberg
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Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, P. O. Box 1225, 75142 Uppsala, Sweden. anders.af_wahlberg@psyk.uu.se
D000367:Age Factors; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D003479:Curriculum; D004522:Educational Status; D018961:Educational Technology; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012449:Safety; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom; D055815:Young Adult