RISKY DRINKING AND DRIVING RIDING DECISIONS - THE ROLE OF PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE/

Factors related to risky drinking and driving/riding decisions were ex plored by presenting vignettes to 135 older adolescents, 17-24 years o f age, with vignettes related to drinking and other social behaviors e ngaged in at a party. Analyses revealed that alcohol-related behaviors , attitudes toward the acceptability of drinking and driving, and prev ious drinking and driving/riding experiences were all significant pred ictors of decisions about driving or riding while intoxicated. Indeed, the overall model accounted for 46% of risky drinking and driving/rid ing decisions. As predicted, older respondents had more previous exper iences with driving while intoxicated and riding with intoxicated driv ers than did younger respondents, and they reported that drinking and driving was more acceptable among their peers. However, contrary to ex pectations there were no differences in the number of risky decisions made by the two age groups or between males and females. The importanc e of previous experiences is discussed.