The impact of a hospital based educational program on adolescent attitudes toward drinking and driving

The High Risk Adolescent Trauma Prevention Program is situated in a teaching hospital setting, where adolescents who are considered to be high risk-takers tour a shock trauma unit. Results from a pretest-posttest longitudinal evaluation design with 351 adolescent participants indicated marked changes in participants attitudes toward driving after drinking, riding with someone who has been drinking and preventing a friend from driving after drinking. These changes in attitudes are still evident, though with some decline in magnitude, after twelve months.