Data from a 3-wave, state-wide mail survey of young adult drivers (1,025 men, 634 women) in Colorado were used to examine correlates and antecedents of risky driving, controlling for both drink driving and drug-related driving. The strongest predictor of risky driving, cross-sectionally, was behavioural conventionality, followed by psychosocial conventionality and social role status. Developmental decline in risky driving, from age 18 to 25, was related to entry into conventional adult social roles and to increases in psychosocial and behavioural conventionality. The strongest predictor of change in risky driving over time was change in behavioural conventionality. Risky driving by young adults appears to be part of a larger syndrome of problem behaviour involvement. (Author/publisher)
Abstract