Associations between selected state laws and teenagers' drinking and driving behaviors.
BACKGROUND
We examined the associations between selected state-level graduated driving licensing (GDL) laws and use-and-lose laws (laws that allow for the suspension of a driver's license for underage alcohol violations including purchase, possession, or consumption) with individual-level alcohol-related traffic risk behaviors among high school youth.


METHODS
Logistic regression models with fixed effects for state were used to examine the associations between the selected state-level laws and drinking and driving behaviors youth aged 16 to 17 years (obtained from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS); responses dichotomized as "0 times" or "1 or more times") over an extended period of time (1999 to 2009).


RESULTS
A total of 11.7% of students reported having driven after drinking any alcohol and 28.2% reported riding in a car with a driver who had been drinking on 1 or more occasions in the past 30 days. Restrictive GDL laws and use-and-lose laws were associated with decreased driving after drinking any alcohol and riding in a car with a driver who had been drinking alcohol.


CONCLUSIONS
Restrictive GDL and use-and-lose laws may help to bolster societal expectations and values about the hazards of drinking and driving behaviors and are therefore partly responsible for the decline in these alcohol-related traffic risk behaviors.
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA. rehgp@psychiatry.wustl.edu
Patricia A
PA
Cavazos-Rehg
Melissa J
MJ
Krauss
Edward L
EL
Spitznagel
Frank J
FJ
Chaloupka
Mario
M
Schootman
Richard A
RA
Grucza
Laura Jean
LJ
Bierut
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000523:psychology; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008004:Licensure; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D012309:Risk-Taking; D018401:Sample Size; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology