Alcohol related motor vehicle crashes and deaths continue to be one of the biggest preventable public health problems in the United States. To examine psychosocial predictors of interventions to prevent drunk-driving, 200 students at a medium sized university were surveyed, of these 119 returned usable surveys. Results showed that the level of comparative impairment between the intervenor and the drunk driver, the sense of moral/social obligation to intervene, and the number of people consulted about the intervention, regardless of their support, significantly predicted drunk-driving intervention (DDI) effort and subsequently DDI success. Results are discussed in terms of application to public health campaigns to reduce the prevalence of drunk-driving episodes. Additionally, there is a need for further scientific research on the psychosocial predictors of drunk-driving interventions to stimulate theory development and provide a framework for drunk-driving prevention programs. (A)
Abstract