Relationship of parent driving records to the driving records of their children

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Abstract

Many studies have shown that young driver crash rates can be influenced by such factors as lifestyle characteristics and licensing systems. However, the influence of parents on their teenage children's crash and violation rates has not received much attention. The present study used data from the North Carolina driver history file to match the crash and violation records of young drivers between the ages of 18 and 21 with those of their parents. Results indicate that children's driving records in the first few years of licensure are related to the driving records of their parents. Children whose parents had three or more crashes on their record were 22% more likely to have had at least one crash compared with children whose parents had no crashes. Likewise, children whose parents had three or more violations were 38% more likely to have had a violation compared with children whose parents had none. Logistic regression models showed that these relationships held when controlling for household type and child gender.

Introduction

Youthful drivers are more likely to be in motor vehicle crashes than any other age group, but studies show that some young people are more likely than others to crash. For example, younger teenagers, males, and residents of states with less stringent licensing systems have higher crash involvements (Ferguson et al., 1996, Williams, 1996). Other studies have investigated psychological factors, finding an interrelationship among certain personality traits (rebelliousness, alienation, independence, defiance of authority) and risky driving practices with crashes and violations (McClelland et al., 1972, Pelz and Williams, 1975, Sobel and Underhill, 1976). Deviant driving and crash involvement also have been found to be related to a syndrome of problem behavior including marijuana use, heavy alcohol use, smoking, trouble with the law, and various other delinquent behaviors, as well as poor academic performance (Williams et al., 1986, Jessor, 1987, Beirness and Simpson, 1988, Wilson and Jonah, 1988, Beirness et al., 1993).

Parents have an important opportunity to influence the driving of their children through the family socialization process, how they themselves drive, and how they manage their children through the licensing process and early driving stages. The role of parents in the crash involvement of their sons and daughters has not received much attention. Certainly teenagers perceive that their parents have an important role in their early driving, exerting control of licensing decisions and imposing various restrictions on driving (Preusser et al., 1985). And there is evidence that the parent–child relationship has a meaningful impact on crash likelihood, as indicated by the positive association observed between teenagers’ crashes, what they perceived to be lesser parental influence regarding their travel, and the imposition of fewer restrictions (Preusser et al., 1985, Williams et al., 1986, Williams, 1998).

In fact, it has been argued that driving behavior is influenced more through familial socialization than through social institutions such as schools, based on the finding of a positive correlation between fathers’ and sons’ convictions for traffic violations (Carlson and Klein, 1970). Carlson and Klein linked delinquent familial socialization (reflected in traffic convictions by fathers) with delinquent driving behavior (reflected in traffic convictions by sons) and showed that teenagers with numerous traffic convictions also were delinquent in other areas; for example, they had poorer academic records than conviction-free teenagers and more recorded offenses for nonvehicular events such as disorderly conduct. These findings led Carlson and Klein to express doubt that institutional socialization of driving behavior through such mechanisms as driver education, licensing rules, or punishments for deviant driving could be very effective.

The role of parents in regard to the driving behavior of their children has received renewed attention recently with the introduction of graduated licensing systems in the US. Graduated systems phase in full-privilege driving in stages, allowing young beginners to gain initial on-road driving experience in lower risk situations. As of 1 January 2000, 24 jurisdictions have enacted some form of graduated licensing that includes three stages: a learner's permit stage, an intermediate stage once the driving test has been passed in which unsupervised high-risk driving is restricted (typically at night and/or with other teenagers), and a full-privilege driver's license after completion of the first two stages. Within this framework substantial variation is possible, and indeed states vary considerably in the provisions they have enacted. For example, in some systems parents are required to certify that their teenagers spent up to 50 h of practice driving as learners. Parents are anticipated to be the chief enforcers of the various driving restrictions of graduated systems.

Clearly some parents will play these roles better than others, and family characteristics may either enhance or limit the effectiveness of licensing systems. Although there are reasons to expect an association between the driving records of parents and their children, the extent and strength of this relationship is not clear from prior research. Carlson and Klein (1970) compared only fathers’ and sons’ records and found a positive association for traffic convictions only, not for crashes. However, crashes are the important outcome measure in terms of dealing with the young driver problem.

With the high expectations for graduated systems that now exist, and the anticipated role of parents in these systems, it is of interest to know the relationship of parents’ driving records to the driving records of their children. That is, to what extent do the driving records of teenagers reflect those of their parents? Accordingly, a study was undertaken to determine these relationships that include sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers in single- and two-parent households.

Section snippets

Methods

Subjects for the study were North Carolina drivers 18–21 years of age and their parents. The names and addresses of young drivers and their putative parents were obtained from the North Carolina driver history file, maintained by the State Division of Motor Vehicles, which contains the names, addresses, and dates of birth of approximately 5.2 million licensed drivers. It also contains an active driver history record of each driver generally for up to 5 years. This history includes moving

Results

The matching procedure resulted in a sample of 155 349 young drivers, of whom 83 021 were sons and 72 328 were daughters (see Table 1). Most young drivers (96 551) were from households where they were matched with two parents; 58 798 young drivers were from homes where they were matched with one parent.

Sons had higher crash and violation rates than daughters. For all households (Table 1), sons were involved in police-reported crashes at a higher rate than daughters (24 vs. 20%) and were twice

Discussion

Results of this study indicate that children's driving records in the first few years of licensure are related to the driving records of their parents. Simply put, parents with crashes and violations are more likely to have children with crashes and violations. Because of the large number of households in the statewide sample, statistical significance was achieved even for small increases in children's crashes and violations relative to their parents’ crashes and violations. However, parents’

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Eric A. Rodgman of the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center for his diligence and computer programming contributions and Chatham County public school officials for their cooperation. This work was supported by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

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