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The Supporting a Teen's Effective Entry to the Roadway (STEER) Program: Feasibility and Preliminary Support for a Psychosocial Intervention for Teenage Drivers With ADHD

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2010.04.002Get rights and content

Abstract

Teenage drivers with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at considerable risk for negative driving outcomes, including traffic citations, accidents, and injuries. Presently, no efficacious psychosocial interventions exist for teenage drivers with ADHD. The Supporting a Teen's Effective Entry to the Roadway (STEER) program is a multicomponent intervention that was developed to help families with a teenager with ADHD negotiate the transition independent driving. The present report includes outcomes from 7 teens with ADHD who enrolled in the 8-week program. Using a multiple baseline design across participants, teens had driving behavior continuously monitored using on-board monitors that measured driving behaviors (i.e., hard breaking, speed), and the parents and teens reported on driving-related impairment each week. Results indicated promising effects across participants, though there were individual differences in treatment response within and across participants and measures. The STEER program was viewed as acceptable to participants as all families completed the STEER program and reported it to be a palatable intervention.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants in the study were 7 teenagers with ADHD and their parent(s) who enrolled in the 8-week STEER program. Families with a 16- to 17-year-old adolescent within a 30-mile radius of a western New York university were sent a direct mail recruitment flyer from a marketing company that described the STEER program, eligibility criteria, and asked interested families to contact the investigators for more information. The mailing resulted in 25 families who called and completed a telephone

Overview

Because this was a study to demonstrate proof-of-concept and feasibility, it was not powered for efficacy analyses. To illustrate any potential treatment effects, effect sizes were calculated for all the outcomes of interest by subtracting the baseline phase mean from the treatment phase mean and dividing by the baseline standard deviation (e.g., Busk and Serlin, 2005, Fabiano et al., 2009). The IRS item related to impairment in driving and objective driving data were combined into panels that

Discussion

Teenagers with ADHD are at the greatest risk for negative driving outcomes (Barkley & Cox, 2007), and the present paper presents initial findings from a trial aimed at demonstrating the feasibility of a psychosocial parent-teen intervention to promote safe driving behaviors. The present study indicated that the STEER program is feasible, palatable, and there were some promising indications that it may be effective in supporting safe driving behavior. Each of these major results will be

Acknowledgement

This project was supported by an Interdisciplinary Research Development Fund of the Office of the Vice President for Research, University at Buffalo. The authors are also grateful for the support of the University at Buffalo Center for Children and Families and the New York State Center for Engineering Design and Industrial Innovation.

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