Citation

Sobel R, Underhill R. J. Saf. Res. 1976; 8(1): 8-18.

Affiliation

Sobel, Raymond: Dartmouth Medical School

Copyright

(Copyright © 1976, U.S. National Safety Council, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Teenagers account for a disproportionate number of traffic accidents and violations. Assuming that family disequilibrium affects adolescent driving, the authors have investigated the lifestyles and family relationships of 496 adolescents, age 16 to 19, and their parents in relation to their driving records. Family dysfunction and social stress seemed to be important in the causation of accidents in males, but not in females. The only important predictor for females seems to be exposure to risk our actual mileage driven. These Berliners studies give credence to the hypothesis that for males, auto accidents, like social deviancy, are symptomatic of family disorder. That females do not choose this avenue of expression of conflict is probably due to sex role limitations along macho behavior in girls. The authors present path regression analysis as a useful method for analyzing complex epidemiologic data.