A longitudinal study on the relationship between adolescents’ medical drama viewing and speeding

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. The present study aimed to examine whether watching medical drama had a long-term protective effect on speeding behavior. Specifically, this research examined the extent to which medical drama viewing in adolescence predicts risk perceptions, crash fear, speeding attitudes and self-reported speeding behavior in early adulthood. Using a longitudinal research method, 487 adolescents (Mage = 17.7 at baseline) who responded to an earlier survey were re-interviewed five years later. Structural equation modeling indicated that more medical drama viewing at baseline was associated with increased risk perception and higher driving-related fear five years later. The fear of being involved in a traffic crash appeared to be associated with less favorable attitudes toward speeding. Furthermore, in line with the expectations, these speeding attitudes were a significant predictor of self-reported speeding behavior. These results help to provide a better understanding of the relationship between media use and subsequent risk-taking, and have implications for prevention efforts.publisher: Elsevier articletitle: A longitudinal study on the relationship between adolescents’ medical drama viewing and speeding journaltitle: Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2015.10.002 content_type: article copyright: Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.status: publishe