Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death and disability for adolescents worldwide. Crash rates are at their highest in the months following licensure. To address this problem, this research project supports a randomised controlled trial with 1,200 parent-teen dyads to determine if the Drivingly Programme can reduce adolescent drivers’ risk for a motor vehicle crash during the first 12 months of licensure. This programme consists of both parent-and teen-directed activities with an aim to reduce teens’ risk for motor vehicle crashes.
Drivingly consists of health coaching sessions for parents at the start of the learner period and start of the independent license period, an evidence-based driving parent supervisor curriculum, an interactive learning-to-drive e-workbook and lesson plan for parents and teens that includes communication tips and conversation starters to scaffold off-line interactions, and an on-road driving intervention and feedback session administered by trained driver evaluators. All of Drivingly’s components are evidence-based and have been evaluated in prior experimental studies.
The Drivingly trial is led by an international and interdisciplinary team of experts in psychology, nursing, biostatistics, and adolescent medicine. It is a collaborative project between the University of Edinburgh, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov # NCT03639753
Funded by: The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Jessica Hafetz, University of Edinburgh
Kate McDonald, University of Pennsylvania
Leann Long, Wake Forrest University
Carol Ford, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania