Texting and Driving Study: What Do Teens Learn From Their Parents?

Parents frequently warn their teens about the dangers of texting or talking on the phone while driving. But it turns out that many parents aren’t willing to practice what they preach. Aceable Driving and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute surveyed over 1,200 teen drivers age 14-18 in Texas, California, and Florida, asking them if their parents and friends drove distracted, and in which ways.

According to the data, about three quarters of teens frequently ride in cars where the driver is distracted. But here’s the surprising part: while more than 28 percent said their friends “never drive distracted,” less than 25 percent said the same of their parents or guardians. That’s right: According to the survey, teens reported that they were are more likely to witness their parents driving distracted than their peers!
Texting took the top spot when Aceable asked teens what their friends are most distracted by while driving. Talking on the phone was the most-reported distraction for parents.

When looking at “phone use” as a whole, about 62 percent of Aceable students said phone use is the main source of distraction for parents and 58 percent said the same of their peers.

According National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 3,477 of all US traffic deaths in 2015 were caused by distracted driving. That’s almost a 9 percent increase over the previous year. So it’s more important than ever for parents to talk to their kids about the dangers of texting and driving… and put the phone down themselves!

There may be some hope on the horizon. Austin, Texas, which has had a texting and driving ban since 2015, had the fewest reports of distracted parents in the study. 41 percent of Austin teens reported that their parents never drive distracted. At the time of the study, Houston, Texas had no ban on cell phone use while driving, and only 23 percent of parents were said to “never drive distracted.”
Luckily, it’s becoming illegal to even hold your phone while driving in many more cities, including Houston.

Talking or texting while driving appears to be a learned behavior that parents pass on to their children. As Aceable expands its driver education curriculum to other states, this survey and future ones like it will help them create more practical and effective course materials.

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Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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