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Intentions and willingness to engage in risky driving behaviour among high school adolescents: evaluating the bstreetsmart road safety programme
  1. Lisa Nicole Sharwood1,2,
  2. A Martiniuk3,
  3. Pooria Sarrami Foroushani4,5,
  4. Julie Seggie6,
  5. Stephanie Wilson6,
  6. Jeremy Hsu6,
  7. Brian Burns7,8,
  8. David Bruce Logan9
  1. 1 John Walsh Centre for Rehabilitation Research, The University of Sydney-Camperdown and Darlington Campus, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  2. 2 Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  3. 3 School of Public Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  4. 4 Institute of Trauma and Injury Management, New South Wales Agency for Clinical Innovation, Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia
  5. 5 South Western Sydney Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Warwick Farm, New South Wales, Australia
  6. 6 Trauma, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia
  7. 7 Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  8. 8 GSA-HEMS Research, Helicopter Emergency Medical Service, SWSLHD, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  9. 9 Road Safety Programs, Monash University Accident Research Centre, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Lisa Nicole Sharwood, John Walsh Centre for Rehabilitation Research, The University of Sydney-Camperdown and Darlington Campus, Sydney, NSW 2033, Australia; lisa.sharwood{at}sydney.edu.au

Abstract

Objective To investigate the impact of a road safety programme on adolescents’ willingness to engage in risky behaviour as probationary drivers, adjusted for covariates of interest.

Method The bstreetsmart is a road safety programme delivered to around 25 000 adolescent students annually in New South Wales. Using a smartphone-based app, student and teacher participation incentives, students were surveyed before and after programme attendance. Mixed-methods linear regression analysed pre/post-modified Behaviour of Young Novice Driver (BYNDS_M) scores.

Results 2360 and 1260 students completed pre-event and post-event surveys, respectively. Post-event BYNDS_M scores were around three points lower than pre-event scores (−2.99, 95% CI −3.418 to −2.466), indicating reduced intention to engage in risky driving behaviours. Covariates associated with higher stated intentions of risky driving were exposure to risky driving as a passenger (1.21, 95% CI 0.622 to 2.011) and identifying as non-binary gender (2.48, 95% CI 1.879 to 4.085), adjusting for other predictors.

Conclusions Trauma-informed, reality-based injury prevention programmes can be effective in changing short-term stated intentions to engage in risky driving, among a pre-independent driving student population. The adolescent novice driver age group is historically challenging to engage, and injury prevention action must be multipronged to address the many factors influencing their behaviour.

  • Safe Community
  • Process/impact evaluation
  • Youth
  • Behavior Change
  • Behavior

Data availability statement

Data are available upon reasonable request. Data are available upon reasonable request, as de-identified participant data from the corresponding author and with appropriate ethical permissions.

https://doi.org/10.1136/ip-2022-044571

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    Data availability statement

    Data are available upon reasonable request. Data are available upon reasonable request, as de-identified participant data from the corresponding author and with appropriate ethical permissions.

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @lisanicole70, @psarrami, @HawkmoonHEMS, @DavidLoganMUARC

    • Contributors LNS conceived of and designed the study. JS and SW assisted with dissemination of research advertisement and study recruitment. JH, JS and SW provided scoping literature and background to the programme. JS and SW led the intervention. AM provided advice for recruitment methodology and interpretation of findings. DBL assisted with recruitment and interpretation of findings and stakeholder management. PSF assisted with preliminary data analysis and write-up. LNS drafted the manuscript, conducted the analyses and coordinated authorship. All readers read and critically reviewed the draft stages of the manuscript and approved the final version. LNS is the guarantor of the manuscript. LNS accepts full responsibility for the work and/or the conduct of the study, had access to the data, and controlled the decision to publish.

    • Funding Funding came from the Institute for Trauma and Injury Management, NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation (no award/grant number) and the University Seed Grant Fund, School of Health Sciences and Faculty of Medicine and Health (no award/grant number).

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.