Teen Drivers

How parental instruction impacts hazard anticipation in teen drivers

While teens experience relatively few crashes during supervised learning, crash rates spike once they begin driving independently. “This trend suggests that while parents effectively teach functional driving skills, they may overlook teaching their teen to recognize or anticipate potential hazards,” said Elizabeth O’Neal, assistant professor in the University of Iowa College of Public Health.

A new study aims to address this gap by examining the impact of a parent-focused intervention designed to improve parental instruction on hazard anticipation.

Participants in the study will include parents and their teens, who will first complete an acclimation drive in the NADS-2 simulator. The intervention group will complete a web-based training program at home, which includes watching simulated hazards and learning how to discuss these with their teens. Both the control and intervention groups will also receive dash cams to record four drives in their own vehicle. Both groups will then participate in a hazard-laden drive in the NADS-2 simulator.

Researchers will analyze differences in parental communication and teen responses, aiming to enhance the effectiveness of parental guidance in teaching hazard anticipation and ultimately reduce teen crash rates.