This paper presents the results of a four-year longitudinal cohort study, to examine the predictive value of various social, psychological and behavioural factors affecting traffic accident involvement among high school students in Eastern Ontario, Canada. In the first year, primary cohorts were selected from grade 9 and 10 students from three high schools. These cohorts were tracked in each of the next three years. The Student Lifestyle Questionnaire was used to gather information on social, psychological and behavioural characteristics. Two groups of students are considered: (1) 187 who reported no accident involvement in any year of the study; (2) 97 students reporting an involvement in a Year 4 accident as driver or as a passenger in a vehicle with a young driver. In Year 1, the students were aged 13 to 15; by Year 4, 66% of the students had driving licences. The two groups were compared on characteristics corresponding to the Perceived Environment System, the Personality System, and the Behaviour System. It was found that students in the Group (2) were more likely than those in Group (1) to engage in drug use, heavy drinking and other negative health behaviours. As these differences appeared three years before the accidents, the relevant characteristics have a clear predictive value.
Abstract