Re-education of young driving offenders: effects on self-reports of driver behavior

Abstract

Introduction: Offending drivers are often re-educated, but these courses have seldom been shown to have any safety effects.

Method: An on-line improvement course for offending drivers below the age of 25 was evaluated with several driver inventories.

Results: The drivers reported higher levels of aggression, stress, sensation seeking, drunk driving, and driving violations, six months after the course than before. However, these levels were lower than those of controls, indicating that the initially low levels for the education group were due to socially desirable responding, as measured by a lie scale, an effect that waned after the course.

Discussion: The results can be interpreted as a positive effect of the education, although this conclusion is tentative and not in agreement with all effects in the data.

Impact on industry: The results are in disagreement with previous evaluation studies using the same or similar instruments, and show the need to include controls for social desirability in self-report studies.