Adolescent antecedents of high-risk driving behavior into young adulthood:substance use and parental influences

Driver history data, in combination with previously collected tenth-grade q uestionnaire data, for 4403 subjects were analyzed by Poisson regression mo dels to identify the significant substance use and parental characteristics predicting subsequent high-risk driving of new drivers (starting at age 16 ) through age 23-24 years. Substance use (cigarettes, marijuana, and alcoho l) reported at age 15 was shown to be an important predictor of subsequent excess risk of serious offenses and serious crashes for both men and women, In addition, negative parental influences (lenient attitudes toward young people's drinking., low monitoring, nurturance, family connectedness), were also demonstrated to increase the risk of serious offenses and serious cra shes for both men and women. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights rese rved.