Research was undertaken to examine the crucial question: are students who elect to take driver education different in significant ways from students who do not elect to take such training? The driver education study was carried out as an integral phase of a long-term pre-driver study previously reported, in which 6906, 15 1/2-year-old high school sophomores were administered a selected battery of personality and attitude tests prior to the onset of their legal driving experience, which in the research locale begins at age 16. Through arrangement with local driver education instructors, those male subjects subsequently electing driver education were identified and matched proportionally in schools with a non-driver education control group. Both groups were then compared with regard to the personality tests administered before either group had the opportunity to elect or decline driver education. Statistical analysis of the pre-driver education personality data revealed that the driver education and non-driver education groups differed significantly in the following: (1) general activity. The driver education group appears less active, more deliberate and restrained, and less prone to rapid and hurried action (p=0 001). (2) ascendance. The driver education group appears significantly less concerned with dominating or persuading others, less concerned with being conspicuous, and more likely to be serious and subdued (p=0.005). (3) sociability. The driver education group displays significantly more shyness and avoidance of social contacts, is more inner-directed, and in general is more reserved and less spontaneous in social participation (p=0.0 05). These findings strongly suggest that those students who elect to take driver education are, in essence, a selected group, and that the nature and significance of these selective characteristics must be considered in weighing the total contribution driver education makes to traffic safety.
Abstract