ANN ARBOR—A high school-based program that discourages teens from misusing alcohol had a positive effect on teen-agers’ first year behind the wheel, a University of Michigan study shows.

During the initial year of driving, those teens who took part in the school-based alcohol prevention program were 20 percent less likely to commit a serious traffic offense (which includes alcohol-related offenses) than teens who did not participate. Serious offenses include those that either involve alcohol, are classified as such by the Secretary of State’s office, result in at least three points assigned to a driver or involve non-driving drug offenses.

Although the difference between the two groups is statistically marginal, U-M researcher Jean Shope believes that the study’s findings are encouraging.

“The results suggest that a high school alcohol misuse prevention program can positively affect driving outcomes,” says Shope, director of Social and Behavioral Analysis at the U-M Transportation Research Institute. “It certainly looks like the prevention program did make a difference, especially among certain sub-groups of students.”

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While the researchers found a modest reduction in serious traffic offenses during the first year of driving, the effect disappeared after that time. However, during the initial year of licensure, the impact was strongest among students who had reported having less than one alcoholic drink per week and among those who said that their parents did not disapprove of teen drinking.

Students in the low-drinking/non-disapproving parent group had 143 fewer serious offenses than expected per 1,000 subjects; those in the low-drinking/disapproving parent group had 24 fewer serious offenses; and those in the drinking/non-disapproving parent group had 22 fewer serious offenses. On the other hand, students in the drinking/disapproving parent group had 27 more serious offenses than expected per 1,000 subjects.

“I think it’s important that the prevention program seemed to work best among the group that had not yet started to drink,” Shope says. “To get to them at the right time makes all the difference. If you’re going to do prevention, you have to get in there before the behavior starts, otherwise you’re doing treatment or harm reduction, not prevention.”

However, an interesting finding, says Shope, is that among both those who drank less than one drink and those who drank more than one drink per week, students who said that their parents disapproved of teen drinking showed less benefit from the program than those whose parents had not expressed disapproval.

“This finding could be explained by the students’ self-reported drinking itself—those who drank more probably had generated an opportunity to hear from their parents about parental attitudes regarding young people’s drinking,” she says. “Those who drank less may not have heard their parents’ attitudes expressed.

“The 20 percent of students who drank in the face of parental disapproval and showed little benefit to their driving from the intervention program were very likely students who were testing limits and exhibiting other problem behaviors.”

Overall, the study’s findings highlight the need to start prevention efforts early, extend them beyond initial exposure to driving, and incorporate the differing backgrounds of students, Shope says.

“Future programs could be adapted to accommodate students’ differences in alcohol use and their parents’ attitudes toward teen drinking,” she says. “Such programs also should be augmented by follow-ups after students have acquired some driving experience and by other community-based programs.

“While schools may be very convenient places to reach groups of young people, many of these programs would work much better if the same prevention message were also being delivered from the home, family, community, youth organizations and the media. Prevention can be somewhat ‘swimming up stream’ when it’s not really being reinforced anywhere else.”

The U-M study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Jean ShopeSocial and Behavioral AnalysisNational Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism