Improving Adolescents’ Driving Behaviors through a Personal Narrative-Based Psychosocial Intervention in Serbia

Objectives: Road traffic crashes continue to be the leading cause of death among adolescents. While males are more vulnerable to crashes than females, driver education interventions are less likely to succeed among males than females. Some studies suggest that stronger optimistic bias and overconfidence bias in males may be the reason for this. Methods: In a quasi-experiment conducted in Serbia, forty schools were stratified by size and randomly assigned to watch a road traffic safety presentation utilizing personal narratives or to a control arm. Surveys were administered before the intervention (N=1,449) and again six months later (N=1,072). Data was analyzed by gender in order to investigate gender differences. Results: Risk perceptions improved for both males and females, and injunctive norms improved for females (t= 1.87, p \u3c .05 for males and t= 2.0, p \u3c .01 for females). Improvements in overconfidence bias and descriptive norms were predictive of improvements in high-risk driving behaviors (β= .21, p \u3c .001 for males and β= .25, p \u3c .001 for females; β= -.15, p \u3c .001 for males and β= -.11, p \u3c .01 for females, respectively). A significant interaction between improvements in injunctive norms and the intervention revealed that males whose injunctive norms improved were significantly more likely to be affected by the intervention, compared to the other groups (β= .13, p \u3c .05). Conclusions: Interventions targeting road traffic safety behaviors in adolescents should utilize a gendered approach. For males in particular, influencing perceptions of injunctive norms is important for intervention efficacy

Road Traffic Behaviors by Gender in Serbia

Background: Road traffic injuries constitute one of the leading causes of death globally, the majority of which occur in low and middle income countries. It is important to understand the most vulnerable group of road users in order to successfully reduce the number of road traffic injuries. Gender differences are important in understanding driving patterns as optimistic bias in male youths results in a the failure to understand their own vulnerability to safety hazards. Behaviors, experiences, risk perception, and social norms surrounding road traffic safety were investigated before the implementation of a road traffic safety educational program. Methods: Surveys were administered to 3rd and 4th graders in various types of schools across Belgrade (N=1,449). Respondents were asked questions regarding their previous experiences on the road, practice of safe road behavior, and aspects of risk perception. Responses to the surveys were stratified by gender and males (n=711) and females (n=738) were compared across these variables. Results: Consistent with previous research, senses of false security were disproportionate across genders. Gender also was found to play a role in accuracy of risk beliefs, risk exposure, sense of false trust, and injunctive norms. Males had a greater sense of false security than females, as well as greater risk exposure and a sense of false trust Females were more likely to have accurate beliefs about road traffic behaviors as well as greater perceptions of injunctive norms. Conclusions: These findings provide support for idea that gender is a major social determinant of road traffic safety and thus must be considered in the implementation of road traffic policy and programs. Within youth populations, males have a poorer sense of the consequences they may face for risky road traffic behavior. These findings are generalizable outside of Serbia as optimistic bias has been found in many high-risk behaviors outside of this population. Due to their greater levels of optimistic bias, male youths would most likely benefit from an educational campaign that made them aware of their risk

Driven to succeed: improving adolescents’ driving behaviors through a personal narrative-based psychosocial intervention in Serbia

Globally, more adolescents die from road traffic fatalities than from any other cause, and males are significantly more vulnerable than females. Driver education interventions directed at males are less likely to succeed than those directed at females, and stronger optimistic bias and overconfidence bias have been implicated as likely reasons. We report results from a quasi-experiment conducted in Serbia, targeting male and female adolescents. Stratified by size, forty schools were randomly assigned to either a personal-narrative intervention or a no-intervention control arm. Data were collected before the intervention (N = 1449) and again six months later (N = 1072). Risk perceptions improved for both males and females, and injunctive norms improved for females. Improvements in overconfidence bias and descriptive norms were predictive of improvements in high-risk driving behaviors. A significant interaction between improvements in injunctive norms and the intervention revealed that males whose injunctive norms improved were significantly more likely to be affected by the intervention, compared to the other groups. Implications for interventions are discussed