A significant proportion of teens killed in motor vehicle crashes die in crashes involving a never-licensed driver (NLD); however, little is currently known about NLDs aside from their crash involvement. Given their contribution to young driver crash-related fatalities, it is important to reduce NLD’s crash risk. In order to do so NLD’s must be better understood. Three studies examined the NLDs. The first used Swedish data to examine social disparities among NLDs. The second used data from the US census and the Fatality Analysis Reporting System to evaluate the characteristics of geographic areas in which fatal crashes involving NLDs occurred. The third used data from the Montana Youth Risk Behavior Survey to examine the individual characteristics of NLDs and compare them to teens who were licensed to drive, as well as teenage non-drivers. The results demonstrated that NLD crashes are associated with socioeconomic disparity. Furthermore, NLDs are at considerable developmental risk, being more involved in normative problem behaviors, alcohol-involved driving, using safety belts less often, having higher levels of suicidality, and reporting more weapon carriage and fighting than teens who are non-drivers and licensed drivers. It is unclear what underlies the association found in this study and others between socioeconomic disparity and NLDs. However, it is consonant with the greater involvement of never licensed drivers in problem behaviors, particularly those of a more serious nature, such as violence, which have also been shown to be associated with socioeconomic disparity. Future research needs to examine this issue more closely to determine whether the intervention should be targeted at reducing disparities, or whether socioeconomic status could be used to tailor interventions for high-risk populations. This research also supports past research showing that problem driving behavior fits well conceptually and empirically as a problem behavior. Interventions to reduce problem behavior involvement of teenagers might be modifiable to also address never-licensed driving. (Author/publisher) The full text of this document may be found at: http://m-castl.org/node/51
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