NCJ Number
226060
Journal
Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse Volume: 18 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2009 Pages: 106-116
Date Published
January 2009
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study examined whether the possession of a driver’s license increased the risk of impaired driving among adolescents who used alcohol or marijuana.
Abstract
Findings supported the hypothesis that possession of legal driving privileges would be an independent risk factor for alcohol-impaired and marijuana-impaired driving, above and beyond frequency of substance use and a host of salient sociodemographic variables. Evidence supported this hypothesis for both risky driving practices, and in each case possession of a driver’s license was more closely associated with impaired driving than with the frequency of alcohol and marijuana use itself. Moreover, among those variables assessed in the study, having legal driving privileges had more to do with increasing the odds of being an impaired driver than any other variable, within a sample of adolescents reporting recent alcohol or marijuana use. In the sample, impaired driving was not significantly associated with sex, age (alcohol-impaired driving only), and age of onset of alcohol or marijuana use, nor a number of other sociodemographic variables. Findings suggest that prevention strategies must address conventional licensing policies in addition to social and contextual factors leading to adolescent alcohol and marijuana use and associated risks. Data were collected from 4,371 7th to 12th grade students in 5 public school districts located in northeast Ohio. Tables and references