Driving under the influence of risky peers: An experimental study of adolescent risk taking

Centifanti, L.C.M.; Modecki, K.L.; MacLellan, S.; Gowling, H.

doi:10.1111/jora.12187

Driving under the influence of risky peers: An experimental study of adolescent risk taking

Centifanti, L.C.M.; Modecki, K.L.; MacLellan, S.; Gowling, H.

Authors

L.C.M. Centifanti

K.L. Modecki

S. MacLellan

H. Gowling

Contributors

S Wolf ljhk15@durham.ac.uk
Other

Abstract

Both passive and active social influences may affect adolescents' dangerous driving. In this study, we used an experimental paradigm to delineate these two influences with actual peers. Adolescents completed a simulated driving task, and we measured risk preferences of each member of the peer group. We used hierarchical linear modeling to partition variance in risky decisions. Adolescents experienced many more crashes when they had “passengers” present who reported a strong preference for risk taking and who actively provided decision-making guidance. Although youth in the passive peer condition were also influenced by the riskiness of their peers, this relation was less strong relative to the active condition. We discuss the need for interventions focussing on active and passive peer influence.

Citation

Centifanti, L., Modecki, K., MacLellan, S., & Gowling, H. (2016). Driving under the influence of risky peers: An experimental study of adolescent risk taking. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 26(1), 207-222. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12187

Journal Article Type	Article
Online Publication Date	Dec 8, 2014
Publication Date	Mar 11, 2016
Deposit Date	Oct 30, 2014
Publicly Available Date	Dec 8, 2016
Journal	Journal of Research on Adolescence
Print ISSN	1050-8392
Electronic ISSN	1532-7795
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	26
Issue	1
Pages	207-222
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12187

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Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: Centifanti, L. C. M., Modecki, K. L., MacLellan, S. and Gowling, H. (2016), Driving Under the Influence of Risky Peers: An Experimental Study of Adolescent Risk Taking. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 26(1): 207-222, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jora.12187. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.