Institute of Education London

The development of children's and young people's attitudes to driving: A critical review of the literature

Summary
The overall purpose of this project is to provide a critical review of the literature on the development of children and young people's attitudes to driving, riding and being a passenger.  The aim is to synthesise existing evidence to help policymakers better understand how, when and to what extent they can target the development of road use skills and related perceptions in children as they move from being a pedestrian and cyclist to passenger and driver, with the object of counteracting the high accident rates prevalent amongst young novice drivers.

Methods
The broad strategy has been to focus on psychosocial issues that have been identified as important factors in the behaviour of novice drivers.  In each instance, the main findings from the literature concerning novice drivers have been summarised, with a particular emphasis on those factors that might reflect developmental issues.  On this basis, the developmental implications have been mapped out in detail, drawing where possible on road user research with participants below driving age, and also on related aspects of wider developmental research.  Finally, a set of policy recommendations relating to each area of concern has been drawn up.

Findings
The report on the research is currently under review by the funders, so conclusions at this point are preliminary. The main factors identified as impacting upon novice driver behaviour where influences from childhood and adolescence might be at work are the perceived threats and benefits of driving; attitudes and affective beliefs; norms; personality; identity; perceived and actual task difficulty; habit; contextual influences; and education. All are likely to affect young drivers' behaviour, but it is concluded that the main area of concern is an initial conflict between strong social identities and relatively weak skill development , which results in the former rather than the latter being the key determinant of driver behaviour, with frequently deleterious consequences.