Young adult impaired driving behaviors and perceived norms of driving under the influence of simultaneous alcohol and cannabis use
DOI: 10.1111/acer.15459
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged
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Summary
This study investigates the association between perceived social norms and impaired driving behaviors among young adults (ages 18–25) who use alcohol and cannabis simultaneously (SAM). While previous prevention efforts have successfully reduced alcohol-impaired driving, rates of cannabis-impaired driving and SAM-impaired driving have remained stable or increased, posing significant public health risks due to the compounded impairment of simultaneous use. The research specifically examines whether descriptive norms (perceived frequency of behavior) and injunctive norms (perceived acceptability of behavior) predict self-reported driving under the influence of SAM (DUI-SAM) and riding with a SAM-impaired driver (RWI-SAM). The analysis utilized data from the 2019 Washington Young Adult Health Survey, a web-based survey of 1,941 Washington State residents aged 18–25. Participants reported on past-month SAM use, DUI-SAM, RWI-SAM, and alcohol- or cannabis-only impaired driving behaviors. They also completed measures of descriptive norms (estimates of how often typical peers engage in DUI-SAM or RWI-SAM) and injunctive norms (perceived acceptability of these behaviors). Weighted multivariable logistic regression models were employed to assess associations, adjusting for demographic covariates, SAM use frequency, and the opposing norm type (e.g., adjusting for descriptive norms when analyzing injunctive norms). Results indicated that 2.7% of participants reported DUI-SAM and 5.3% reported RWI-SAM in the past month. A significant discrepancy existed between perceived and actual behavior: nearly half of participants (49.8% for DUI-SAM; 48.7% for RWI-SAM) believed typical peers engaged in these behaviors at least monthly, whereas actual prevalence was much lower. Regarding injunctive norms, the majority of participants (68.8% for DUI-SAM; 67.6% for RWI-SAM) deemed these behaviors "totally unacceptable." Statistical analysis revealed that descriptive norms were not significantly associated with DUI-SAM after adjusting for covariates, but were positively associated with RWI-SAM. In contrast, more permissive injunctive norms (i.e., not "totally unacceptable") were significantly associated with increased odds of both DUI-SAM and RWI-SAM, even after controlling for SAM use frequency and descriptive norms. These associations were also observed for alcohol- and cannabis-only impaired driving outcomes. The findings suggest that injunctive norms are a stronger predictor of SAM-impaired driving behaviors than descriptive norms. This implies that interventions focused on correcting misperceptions of peer acceptability—rather than just frequency—may be more effective for reducing SAM-related driving risks. The study concludes that normative beliefs represent a promising target for prevention programs, though further replication is needed to validate these findings and evaluate specific intervention strategies.
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via scout_discovery on 2026-05-08.
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | partial | scout | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-08 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 32 | 2026-08-22 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 3 | 2026-08-23 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| enrich | success | semantic_scholar | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-04 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.8-27b-gittensor | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-08-23 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 15 | 2026-06-11 |
Summary generated by qwen3.8-27b-gittensor on 2026-08-23; verification: pending re-verification.
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- Empirical Findings: observational prevalence