Citation

Schutzhofer B, Inwanschitz D, Lager F, Wiener K. Blutalkohol 2004; 41(3): 210-233.

Affiliation

1070 Wien, Austria.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, International Committee on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety and Bund gegen Alkohol und Drogen im Straßenverkehr, Publisher Steintor Verlag)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Several studies demonstrate that juveniles first come into contact with alcohol and drugs at a very early age. The aim of the present study was to investigate juveniles' attitudes towards driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs as well as other traffic violations. In cooperation with the school authorities in charge representative sample survey students were given a standardized questionnaire covering a wide range of road traffic safety related issues and attitudes towards alcohol, drugs and their influence on road traffic safety. The result supports the assumption that juveniles aged 14 to 19 years do in fact have various implicit theories about the main causes for road traffic accidents. The Mixed-Rasch-Model analysis indicated the presence of four latent classes, which roughly correspond to attitude styles known by psychologists and teachers in this field. Furthermore first results concerning the effect of these implicit theories on traffic related attitudes and juveniles' hazard perception are presented. These results are discussed in the light of possible modifications of current road traffic safety education programmes.