1361 - HOW ADULT CHILDREN PERCEIVE DRIVING AND SAFETY ATTITUDES OF THEIR PARENTS: DESCRIPTIVE AND INJUNCTIVE NORMS

Session: D13S007 - Social Norms, Culture, and Traffic Climate 2
AUTHORS:
Marksaityte Rasa (Vytautas Magnus University ~ Kaunas ~ Lithuania) , Vadvilavicius Tadas (Vytautas Magnus University ~ Kaunas ~ Lithuania) , Endriulaitiene Aukse (Vytautas Magnus University ~ Kaunas ~ Lithuania) , Seibokaite Laura (Vytautas Magnus University ~ Kaunas ~ Lithuania) , Morkevičiūtė Modesta (Vytautas Magnus University ~ Kaunas ~ Lithuania) , Kiliute Austeja (Vytautas Magnus University ~ Kaunas ~ Lithuania) , Skinkyte Goda (Vytautas Magnus University ~ Kaunas ~ Lithuania)
Abstract text:
Introduction. Parental behaviour and attitudes may shape how a child behaves in the future. However, little is known about the role of parents' driving and safety attitudes in influencing risky driving behaviours in young adulthood. Purpose. This study aimed to examine how adult children perceive the descriptive and injunctive driving and safety norms of their parents. Method. The study included 102 Lithuanian participants aged 18-35 (mean age = 19.81, SD = 2.71), 81% of whom were women. Among them, 47 had a driving license, 25 were in driver training, and 30 did not have a license. Descriptive and injunctive norms were measured using two scales (8 items each) developed for the study. Participants were asked how often their parents engage in risky driving behaviours, e.g., no seat-belt use (descriptive norms) and how much would parents approve risky driving behaviours if the participants engaged in them, e.g., speeding (injunctive norms). The same driving behaviours were measured for descriptive and injunctive norms. The study was funded by a grant No. S-MIP-24-31 from the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT). Results. Results revealed that perceived parental descriptive norms of adult children were significantly higher than injunctive norms (t(101) = 3.68, p < .001). Additionally, there were differences between descriptive and injunctive norms for behaviours such as speeding, driving under the influence of marijuana, riding with a driver under the influence of marijuana, not using a seatbelt, phone use while driving, and general traffic rule compliance. Conclusion. The study found that youngsters perceive higher parental descriptive driving norms compared to injunctive driving norms. This suggests that parents may engage in riskier driving behaviours themselves than they would approve if their children engaged in similar behaviours. This discrepancy might play a significant role in modelling young adult children's driving behaviour and should be studied further.