Why do teenagers engage in risky behavior behind the wheel? Just what are these kids thinking, anyway? A groundbreaking study of young drivers, conducted by researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, offers some startling insights into how teens perceive risk. It suggests that parents and teachers can reach teens more effectively if they correct teens’ misconceptions with very specific messages.
Among the survey’s findings:

• Teens define “experience” differently than adults do. Although 60 percent of teens know that experience affects safety, only 15 percent regard their peers as “inexperienced drivers.” They tend to measure experience by licensure, not by miles driven or exposure to difficult situations.

• Teens distinguish among distractions. A whopping 79 percent of teens recognize behind-the-wheel text-messaging as unsafe. In fact, they rank it right up there with drag racing and marijuana use as a hazard. But only 28 percent regard talking on a cell phone as dangerous. Most teens admit that cell phone use becomes increasingly dangerous when it triggers emotional responses.

• Teens don’t see peer passengers as a risk factor. Only 10 percent of teens view peer passengers as increasing the risk of a crash, despite mountains of empirical evidence. However, healthy majorities recognize that passengers become dangerous by “acting wild” or encouraging the driver to speed.

“Teens do not see their world in black and white; they see it in Technicolor,” says Dr. Kenneth R. Ginsburg, the study’s lead researcher. “Educational messages that address the many gradations of risk within distractions might resonate better with teens.”

Published in a recent issue of the journal Pediatrics, the study relied on a survey of nearly 6,000 ninth, tenth, and eleventh graders in 68 high schools across the country.