Identification of Parental Program Structures for Deterring Adolescent Drinking and Driving. Volume 1, Report on Focus Groups with Parents

Harding, Wayne M.; Apsler, Robert; Walsh, W. A. · 1989 · ROSA P / United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

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Summary

This 1989 report by Harding et al., commissioned by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), investigates the feasibility of developing programs to assist parents in preventing adolescent drinking and driving. Motivated by the recognition that youth drinking and driving remains a leading cause of teen fatalities and that previous prevention efforts focused primarily on youth in educational settings, the study aimed to determine parental willingness to participate in prevention efforts, identify optimal program structures, and assess the information parents require to effectively deter this behavior. The research employed a three-stage methodology. First, a comprehensive literature review examined existing empirical studies on parent-involved prevention programs, focusing on U.S.-based research from the preceding decade. Second, three focus groups were conducted with parents of adolescents aged 11–18 to gather data not available in the literature. Third, findings from the initial stages were used to generate a list of potential program topics and delivery systems, which were then evaluated for acceptability in a fourth focus group. A total of 26 parents, predominantly female, white, and married, participated in the focus groups held in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Participants were recruited via newspaper advertisements, census lists, and word-of-mouth, and were compensated for their time. The findings revealed a significant gap in rigorous evaluation data regarding the effectiveness of parent prevention programs. While parents viewed adolescent drinking and driving as a serious social problem, they often underestimated their own children’s risk and believed they had limited influence over their teens’ behavior, preferring to rely on schools and other agencies. Crucially, parents expressed low willingness to participate in programs requiring substantial time or effort; fewer than half were willing to attend a two-hour community meeting. Instead, they favored low-effort delivery methods, such as short mailed pamphlets, television public service announcements, and telephone hotlines. Parents expressed high interest in specific content areas, including parenting skills (e.g., how to initiate family discussions), information on detecting alcohol use, strategies for supervising teenage parties, and details on local treatment resources. They also preferred information that highlighted the severity of the problem through graphic descriptions of crash consequences. The study concludes that while parent involvement is a potent force for prevention, program designers must reconcile parents’ desire for low-commitment engagement with the need for substantive educational content. Recommendations include packaging information in short installments, targeting parents when their children are ages 10–11, and addressing parents’ tendency to underestimate their children’s alcohol use. The authors emphasize the need for future research to test these hypothetical program structures and to conduct rigorous evaluations to determine whether such interventions effectively change parental practices and, subsequently, adolescent behavior.

Key finding

Parents preferred low-effort delivery systems like mailed pamphlets and television segments over time-intensive meetings and were most interested in information regarding parenting skills, such as how to initiate family discussions about drinking and driving.

Methodology

other

Sample size: 26

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• parental management