Drinking and driving among American youth: beliefs and behaviors

Data from research on traffic accident populations clearly indicate that a large proportion of accidents involve drivers under the age of twenty-five. Even after differential exposure to traffic accidents has been controlled for, young drivers remain over-represented in both alcohol-related and non-alcohol-related traffic crashes. The relative risk of crash involvement begins to increase markedly among drivers at even relatively low blood alcohol concentrations. Data from general population surveys confirm these findings. When persons under 25 years of age are compared as a group with those 25 and older, a larger proportion of the young persons in the general population both approved of and reported that they engaged in drinking and driving behavior. However, the actual proportion of young persons in the general population who indicated that they had ever been arrested for driving while impaired, or that they had had a traffic accident as a result of drinking, was quite small. The somewhat limited data available on social, psychological and behavioral correlates of youthful drinking and driving problems indicate some association between feelings of rebellion, hostility and alienation (as measured by attitudes toward parents, school, and society), and increased numbers of traffic violations and accidents.