Parent-based intervention strategies to reduce adolescent alcohol-impaired driving.

Abstract

Objective: To review selected issues to consider when designing parent-based interventions for reducing alcohol-impaired driving in adolescent populations and to present a theoretical framework for analyzing such behavior.

Method: The existing literature on alcohol-impaired driving and parent influences is considered based on a literature review of contemporary social science journals. Data also are presented from a survey of junior and senior high school students in the Capitol District of New York.

Conclusions: Parent-based approaches are promising and represent an additional tool in the armament of strategies to reduce alcohol-impaired driving. Programs should focus on variables that are amenable to change (cognitions and attitudes), conduct preliminary studies to isolate relevant attitudes and cognitions for the target population of interest, formulate strategies that recognize the numerous demands in a parent's life and take into account existing theoretical frameworks on alcohol-impaired driving in adolescents.