Turning Questions into Answers - Parents Survey Results

Key Survey Findings—Parents of Teens National Survey
May 6, 2003

RAISING TEENS OVERVIEW:
1. Six out of ten parents (59%) say the number one health and safety risk facing their teenager is driving safety.

• Parents were asked the following question: “Please tell me the health and safety risk facing your (teenager/teenagers) that concerns or worries you the most?” This was an open-ended question in which no response categories were read and multiple responses were accepted.
• Included in the category driving safety, parents specifically mentioned driving safety (39%), car crashes (25%), drinking and driving (11%), and speeding (6%).
• Other health and safety risks that are top of mind for parents are: drug abuse (31%), alcohol abuse (17%), pregnancy or STDs (13%), violent crime (11%), diseases like cancer or AIDS (7%), peer pressure (6%), war (4%) and suicide (3%).

2. And seven out of ten parents (68%) believe that car crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers.

• Parents were asked the following question: “And, if you just had to guess, would you guess more teenagers die each year due to: suicide, car crashes, a drug overdose, alcohol poisoning, violent crime, a disease like cancer or AIDS?” These six responses were chosen because they are listed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as leading causes of teen deaths in the U.S.
• Parents ranked the other five causes of death for teenagers far below car crashes, with 10% saying suicide, eight percent (8%) saying a drug overdose, seven percent saying (7%) alcohol poisoning, three percent saying (3%) violent crime, and one percent (1%) saying a disease like cancer or AIDS.

3. Nine out of ten (89%) parents believe there is something they can do as parents to reduce the health and safety risk their teenagers face from car crashes.

• Specifically, parents mentioned action steps that are consistent with the proposed driving safety guidelines:
  • Enforce wearing seat belts;
  • Limit number of driving hours;
  • Prohibit night-time driving;
  • Limit number of passengers;
  • Forbid drinking and driving;
  • Increase minimum age requirements for getting a license; and
  • Enroll them in driver’s education courses
    .
• As well as suggestions for their teens, parents also listed ways they could be proactive in increasing the safety of their teen driver.
  • Set a good example with their own driving;
  • Be more involved in their teen’s life; and
  • Closely track their teen’s use of the car.

4. We asked parents a series of questions about their teenagers’ behavior while driving.

• A majority of parents report their teenage drivers participate in the following behaviors while driving:
  • Drive from 9PM to midnight, without a parent or another adult present in the vehicle (79% yes);
  • Listen to loud music while driving (70% yes); and
  • Drive with more than one other teenager as a passenger (67% yes).
    
• Thirty-six percent (36%) of parents report their teenage driver talks on a cell phone when driving and two out of ten parents (19%) say their teenage driver drives from midnight to 6am, without a parent or another adult present in the vehicle.
• Using these five “bad driving” behaviors, we were able to create a risk index to segment teenagers into three risk categories based on the number of driving behaviors they do.

Low Risk Teens (11%): Teenagers who participate in one or two bad driving behaviors.

Medium Risk Teens (30%): Teenagers who participate in three bad driving behaviors.

High Risk Teens (17%): Teenagers who participate in four or five bad driving behaviors.

• Slightly less than one out of five (17%) parents report their teenage driver participates in four or five of these driving behaviors. In fact these driving behaviors are related to other dangerous driving situations for teens. Among the 17% of parents who say their teenage driver participates in high risk driving behavior, these parents are more likely to report their teenager has received a speeding ticket or been in a car crash.
• High risk teens are:
  • Not surprisingly, more likely to have received a ticket for speeding and been in a car crash;
  • More likely to be age 17 or 18 or have had their license for less than one year, based on reported driving behavior from parents; and
  • More likely to have parents with higher levels of education or income.

EXPLORING TEEN DRIVING GUIDELINES

5. When parents are presented with successful results and a rationale for driving safety guidelines for teenagers, nine out of ten (92%) parents say they would be likely to adopt teen driving guidelines for their teenager in their home. And nearly seven out of ten (67%) parents said they would be “very likely” to adopt teen driving guidelines for their teenager in their home.

• Parents were read the following description of a set of teen driving safety guidelines and asked how likely they would be to adopt ALL of these guidelines for their teenager in their home. The guidelines were described as:
  • These guidelines have two basic levels-the Learner's Permit Level and the New Driver Level. In the Learner's Permit Level, the parent makes sure a teen driver completes a certified driver’s education course, and an additional 40 to 50 hours of supervised driving before getting a license.
  • During the New Driver level, which begins after the learner’s permit level and ends when the teenage driver is 18, the parent:
    • Limits nighttime driving after 9 or 10pm unless a teen driver is with a licensed adult, since late night is when teens are at highest risk;
    • Limits the number of teenage passengers a teen can drive to one, since the risk of a crash is twice as high with two teen passengers in the car;
    • Insists a teen always wear a seat belt, and their passengers do as well; insists on a clean driving record, which means no traffic violations; and at all times prohibits drinking and driving.
    • And, if a teen driver breaks any one of these guidelines, the parent delays granting full driving privileges.
• Parents “very likely” to adopt all of the teen driving safety guidelines tended to be parents age 35-44, with younger teenagers, with teenagers whose driving behavior qualifies them as low risk, and who later say it would be easy for them to adopt the driving safety guidelines in their home.
• Parents “not at all likely” to adopt all of the teen driving safety guidelines tended to be parents with older teenagers, with teenagers whose driving behavior qualifies them as high risk and who later say it would be difficult for them to adopt the driving safety guidelines in their home.
• Please note, parents whose teens are actually more in need of having driving safety guidelines enforced are actually more likely to oppose adopting them in their home.

6. When asked how easy it would be for parents to adopt and enforce these guidelines, seventy-six percent (76%) of parents say it would be easy for them to adopt and enforce all of the teen driving safety guidelines for their youngest teenager.

7. To determine whether issuing a contract between the parent and teenager would impact enforcement of the teen driving guidelines, we asked parents whether a contract would help them enforce the guidelines.

• There are two ways this question could have been asked: 1) As a simple yes or no question– “And, would a contract or written agreement between you and your (teenager/teenagers) help you enforce these guidelines with (him/her/them)?”; and 2) As a three point question – “And, would a contract or written agreement between you and your (teenager/teenagers) help you or not help you to enforce these guidelines with (him/her/them), or would it not make a difference one way or the other?.” In order to see if the question wording impacted parents’ responses we asked half of the parents’ one question and half of the parents the other question.
• No matter how the question was asked, the majority of parents said a written agreement or contract would not make much difference or help them enforce the driving safety guidelines with their teenagers, although some parents did say it would be beneficial.

• However, we would suggest providing the option for parents to do a contract because of the following reasons:
  • Women are much more likely than men to say a contract or agreement would help them enforce these guidelines with their teenager.
  • There is also a sharp difference by region and geography, with parents living in the South, West Coast and urban areas more likely to say a contract or agreement would help them enforce these guidelines with their teenager.
  • Interestingly, parents who live in states classified as having “acceptable” GDL laws are more likely to say a contract would not be helpful compared to parents who live in states with “good,” “marginal” or “poor” GDL laws saying a contract would be helpful.
    
• Similar to the push back in the focus groups, once we asked respondents on the survey about whether they would be likely to enforce each individual guideline for their teenager in their home, there was push back on limiting curfews, the number of teen passengers allowed in the motor vehicle and the length of time the new driver guidelines are enforced.

• In order to look at the impact of variations of support for adopting teen driving safety guidelines on other questions we created an index of four different types of parents based on their likelihood of adopting the individual guidelines as well as adopting all of the guidelines overall.

• Due to the push back we received in the focus groups with regard to limiting curfews, the number of teen passengers and the duration of the guidelines, we decided to test less strict versions of these particular guidelines to help determine where parental push back subsides and likelihood of enforcement begins.
  • On curfews, we tested 11pm and 12am. We pick up 26% more parents saying they would be “very likely” to adopt the curfew guideline if the time is shifted from 10pm to 11pm.
  • On number of teen passengers, we tested two teen passengers. We pick up 14% more parents saying they would be “very likely” to adopt the teen passenger guideline if the number of teens shifted from one to two.
  • On the duration of the new driver guideline, we tested age 17 or for six months after the teen has obtained their license. We pick up 25% more parents saying they would be “very likely” to adopt all of the guidelines if the guidelines were in enforced until age 17 or for six months after a teen obtains their license.
    
• And also similar to what we found in the groups, parents say they will have the most problem enforcing the limits on curfews and number of teen passengers with their teenager.
• In the focus groups we heard parents say that a reduction of teenagers’ insurance costs might impact whether or not a parent adopts the driving safety guidelines. Six out of ten parents say they would be “much more likely” to adopt all of the driving safety guidelines if it meant insurance companies would reduce the premium for their teenage driver.
  • Even a majority of parents who are not likely to say they would adopt the teen driving safety guidelines (53%) say that a reduction in the premium for their teenage driver would make them more likely to adopt all of the teen driving safety guidelines.

MESSAGE TESTING:
8. We tested eleven statements about teenagers and driving safety, to see which, if any, parents thought were convincing reasons to adopt all of the teen driving safety guidelines for their teenager in their home. More than nine out of ten parents said all of the eleven statements were convincing reasons to adopt all of the teen driving safety guidelines for their teenager in their home.

• Looking at the “very convincing” percent, the top four statements were:
  • “A teenager driving with three or more teen passengers in a vehicle has a five times greater chance of being involved in a fatal crash than when driving alone” (80% very convincing);
  • “Motor vehicle crashes are the number one killer of teens, and thirty-six percent (36%) of all teen driving deaths are alcohol related” (76% very convincing);
  • “Motor vehicle crashes are the number one killer of teens” (73% very convincing); and
  • “Sixty-three percent of teen passenger deaths occurred when other teenagers were driving” (70% very convincing).
    
• The remaining seven arguments had six out of ten parents saying they were “very convincing.”
  • “A teenager driving with two teen passengers in a vehicle is twice as likely to be involved in a fatal crash than when driving alone” (67% very convincing);
  • “During a typical weekend, an average of one teen dies per hour in a motor vehicle crash” (66% very convincing);
  • “Studies have shown teen crashes are reduced by nearly a third after these guidelines have been implemented” (66% very convincing);
  • “Nationally, more than 300,000 teens, age 16-19, were injured and nearly 5,000 died in vehicle crashes in 2000” (65% very convincing);
  • “Studies have shown teen crashes are reduced by as much as sixty percent (60%) after these guidelines have been implemented” (62% very convincing);
  • “Fifty percent (50%) of fatalities that occur with a teenager at the wheel happen after dark, even though most teen driving occurs during daylight hours” (61% very convincing); and
  • “New drivers age 16 to 17 are almost twice as likely to be in a fatal crash than drivers age 18 to 19.” (59% very convincing).
    
• The top arguments among respondents who initially said they would not be likely to adopt the teen driving safety guidelines, but after hearing the arguments moved to say they would be likely to adopt the teen driving safety guidelines:

• Looking at the top three arguments by teenager risk level:

Looking at the most powerful messages among parents not likely to adopt the teen driving guidelines

• It is important to note among parents with teenagers at higher risk and among parents who are not likely to adopt the driving safety guidelines, using the additional text of “36% of all teen driving deaths are alcohol related” onto one of the arguments resonates with these core sub-groups.

MEDIA TESTING:
9. As we saw in the focus groups, parents say the top formats their teenagers would prefer to get more information about the guidelines are an interactive web site, a video or a computer or video game.

• However, there are sharp differences in preference by the gender of the teenager, with parents of boys saying their boy would be more likely to prefer a video game or computer game and parents of girls saying their girl would be more likely to prefer an interactive website or video.

METHODOLOGY:
Public Opinion Strategies conducted a national survey of 400 parents of teenagers age 15 to 18 years old. The sample was drawn proportional by state to the number of teenagers age 15 to 18 years old in the United States.* The survey was conducted February 26-27, 2003 and has a margin of error of + 4.9%.

*These population figures were provided by the U.S. Census Bureau from the 2000 Census.