title: It takes two: a brief report examining mutual support between parents and teens learning to drive.
abstract: Parental supervision of teen drivers has been identified as a way to mitigate teen crash risk. However, we know little about what motivates parents to be engaged supervisors throughout all phases of the learning-to-drive process. As a result, we are just beginning to understand what factors might motivate parents to actively supervise pre-license practice. In the current study, we examine how the provision of social support between parent and teen dyads might relate to parents' intention to remain engaged supervisors for the entire learner phase. Participants were a national sample of 309 teens with learner permits (age range 15-17 years, M (SD) 16.1 (0.8)) and a parent practice supervisor in the United States. Results indicated that parents in mutually supportive dyads reported stronger intentions to be engaged in their teens' practice driving over the course of the permit phase as compared to dyads where both members reported receiving low support: (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) [95% confidence interval (CI)]: 2.02 [1.04, 3.94]; p=0.038). No benefit was observed for only having one member of the dyad provide support, irrespective of it being the parent or the teen. Future research on this topic should consider reciprocal parent-teen interactions as potential determinates of parent driving supervision behaviors.
authors.affiliation: Center for Injury Research and Prevention, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 3535 Market Street, Suite 1150, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. Electronic address: jessica.h.mirman@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Jessica H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Mirman
authors.affiliation: Center for Injury Research and Prevention, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 3535 Market Street, Suite 1150, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, 423 Guardian Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. Electronic address: currya@email.chop.edu.
authors.forename: Allison E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Curry
authors.affiliation: Center for Injury Research and Prevention, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 3535 Market Street, Suite 1150, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. Electronic address: wangw4@email.chop.edu.
authors.forename: Wenli
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Center for Injury Research and Prevention, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 3535 Market Street, Suite 1150, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. Electronic address: fisherthielm@email.chop.edu.
authors.forename: Megan C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Fisher Thiel
authors.affiliation: Center for Injury Research and Prevention, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 3535 Market Street, Suite 1150, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, 423 Guardian Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, 295 John Morgan Building, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. Electronic address: durbind@email.chop.edu.
authors.forename: Dennis R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Durbin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000193:education*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting; D010290:Parents; D012944:Social Support; D014481:United States
keywords: Learner permit; Parenting; Practice driving; Practice quality; Supervised driving; Supervision; Teen driving