School of Psychology

Do New Drivers’ Model Their Parent’s Driving Patterns?

Researcher     Kelli Forbes

Supervisor      Laurence Hartley

Date:                26th May, 2009
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New drivers are at the highest risk for road accidents when compared to other age groups and previous research has indicated that road behaviour, perception, and family connectedness are factors that contribute to the large incident rate.  The study investigated the relationship between new drivers and their selected parent’s road behaviour and risk perception.  Additionally, it considered whether connectedness between the parent and the child influences the concordance rate of driving styles.  New drivers and their primary driving parent completed a self reported questionnaire that contained fifty five questions regarding road behaviour, risk perception and family connectedness.  New drivers were aged between 18-25 years old, lived in the same household with parents during licensure, travelled between 175-750 kilometres per week and had under five years driving experience.  The experienced parent driver was aged over twenty five, had over five years driving experience, and was nominated as the primary driver for the family.  A hierarchical regression model was employed to assess the effects of all the independent variables (parents’ driving behaviour, risk perceptions i.e. both new drivers and experienced parent drivers, and family connectedness i.e. the average connectedness score of the new driver and experienced parent driver of each pair) on the dependent variable (new drivers’ risky road behaviour) to understand the contribution of each variable alone and once other independent variables had been accounted for.  The best predictor for the new drivers’ road behaviour was experienced parents’ road behaviour, followed by the new drivers’ risk perceptions, and the experienced drivers’ perceptions.  Connectedness was expected to predict the new drivers’ road behaviour in this study, and although it was related in the predicted direction, it was not significant.  These studies indicate that new drivers’ road behaviour is influenced by parents’ driving style, however the strength of the relationship between the parent and the child does not significantly affect the concordance rate of driving styles.