The Effect of Group-Adapted Motivational Interviewing on Traffic Convictions and Driving Behaviors of Court-Adjudicated Youth

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effect of a 20 hr prevention program (The Reducing Dangerous Driving Program, RYDD) in reducing traffic citation recidivism and high-risk driving behaviors among 16- to 20-year-olds referred by the Rhode Island courts for traffic citation events.

Methods: Participants were randomized to receive either the Adapted Group Motivational Interviewing (AGMI) or the Community Service (CS) arm of the study. Participants completed a survey at baseline and at 6 and 12 months post-RYDD completion. Objective court data on post-RYDD traffic event citations were also collected.

Results: There were no significant differences between the groups on measures of high-risk driving behaviors and post-RYDD traffic event citation recidivism at the 12-month follow-up assessment.

Conclusions: There remains a need to develop and test behavioral interventions that could address high-risk driving behaviors and associated motor vehicle crash (MVC) risk in this population. Further research is needed to determine whether group behavioral interventions that use motivational interviewing could be a possible mechanism for changing high-risk behaviors, traffic citation recidivism, and the associated risks that these pose for MVCs among young drivers.

Keywords:

• young drivers
• traffic citations
• driving behaviors
• group intervention

Acknowledgment

This study was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Grant R49CE000544-01).

Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Traffic Injury Prevention to view the supplemental file.