Parenting for the Learner Stage of Graduated Driver Licensing

Background: The learner stage of graduated driver licensing provides an opportunity for parents to provide teens with supervised driving experiences. However, teens typically receive less practice time and exposure to challenging conditions than necessary in preparation for independent driving. I aimed to explore differences among parents in how they prepare teens during the learner stage. I analyzed data collected by the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center to examine differences in parents’ behavior and communication as well as a subset of teens’ independent driving behaviors. Study 1: I developed a typology of parenting practices by qualitatively analyzing data from 352 interviews and 595 video clips. Guided by the Integrative Model of Parenting, I examined whether parenting style and goals varied across the typology. Two groups, the independence promoters and the conscientious adapters, possessed preferable constellations of parenting practices. In both groups, teens received more average driving practice than in the three other groups. Teens whose parents were in the independence promoter group exhibited the lowest proportions of several unsafe behaviors during the initial months of independent driving. Conscientious adapter parents had the most desirable parenting style, with the highest average levels of responsiveness and demandingness. Study 2: I sought to analyze the average trajectory of supervising driving time across the learner stage. A random intercept model found that greater parental responsiveness was associated with significantly more driving practice, and setting a generic, unambitious goal for the learner stage was associated with significantly less driving practice. However, individual trajectories exhibited considerable within-person fluctuation. Counterintuitively, teens’ lack of willingness to participate in supervised driving practice, and actual opportunities for driving practice, contributed to within-individual fluctuation. Conclusion: Parents are not a homogenous group in their supervision of driving practice. Parents also differ substantially in their goals for the learner stage. Findings affirm the need to account for the influence of teens on the quantity and quality of supervised driving. Adopting a more nuanced understanding for intervening with parents, allowing for flexibility and adaptability and the bidirectional parent-teen relationship, will help interventions be more effective to prepare teens for independent driving.Doctor of Philosoph