This paper presents some results of a study which was designed to find out if adolescent drinking and driving could be predicted over time, using the theory of planned behaviour. The study was divided into three successive phases: (1) a classroom run of the Planned Behaviour Scale (PBS) test battery; (2) three months later, individual face-to-face interviews, held using a modified version of the Health Attitudes and Practices (HAP) survey. This included students' estimates of how often they had driven over the legal alcohol limit; (3) nine months after (2), a telephone follow-up interview. The subjects were 530 Californian students in grades 9 to 12, who had driven a car within the previous year. 500 of them completed phases (1) and (2), and some of them were invited to complete phase (3). 76% of the students reported that they had consumed alcohol. The results showed that the Theory of Planned Behaviour may be useful in predicting adolescent drinking and driving behaviour. It could help to develop more effective intervention and prevention strategies.
Samenvatting