Concealing their communication: Exploring psychosocial predictors of young drivers’ intentions and engagement in concealed texting
DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2013.10.016
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Summary
This study investigates the psychosocial predictors of "concealed texting" while driving among young adults, defined as making a conscious effort to hide phone use from outside observers. The research addresses a critical gap in road safety literature, noting that while general mobile phone use is well-studied, the specific, deliberate act of concealing texting—a behavior potentially driven by evasion of enforcement—remains underexplored. Given that young drivers are disproportionately involved in crashes and are frequent mobile phone users, the authors aimed to identify key motivational factors to inform targeted countermeasures. The researchers employed an extended Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) model, incorporating standard constructs (attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control) alongside three additional predictors: moral norm, mobile phone involvement, and anticipated regret. The study utilized a two-wave longitudinal design with 171 participants aged 17 to 25 who held current driver’s licenses. Participants completed a baseline questionnaire measuring their intentions and psychosocial variables regarding concealed texting. One week later, a follow-up questionnaire assessed their self-reported actual engagement in the behavior. Hierarchical multiple regression and logistic regression analyses were used to determine the predictive utility of the model components. The results demonstrated strong support for the extended TPB model. Standard TPB constructs accounted for 69% of the variance in drivers’ intentions to conceal texting, while the extended predictors contributed an additional 6% of variance. Significant predictors of intention included attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, moral norm, and mobile phone involvement; however, anticipated regret did not significantly predict intention. Crucially, intention was the only significant predictor of actual self-reported behavior. Logistic regression indicated that for every one-unit increase in intention, the odds of enacting concealed texting increased significantly. The study also confirmed that concealed and obvious texting are distinct behaviors, with higher mean scores for intention and perceived control in the concealed condition. The findings imply that interventions targeting young drivers should focus on modifying attitudes, perceived control, and moral norms, as well as addressing high levels of mobile phone involvement. Since intention is the sole significant predictor of behavior, strategies that effectively shift intentions—such as public education campaigns highlighting the moral implications and risks of concealed texting—are likely to reduce engagement in this high-risk activity. The study underscores the need for nuanced approaches to distracted driving that account for the deliberate, evasive nature of concealed texting rather than treating all mobile phone use as homogeneous.
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-17 |
| archive | success | unpaywall | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-25 |
| extract | success | pdftotext | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-26 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| enrich | failed | — | — | — | 4 | 2026-06-25 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-17 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 6 | 2026-06-26 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-25; verification: verified.
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