Texting while driving occurs in drivers of all ages; however, the greatest at-risk population is young drivers. Eighty percent of college students have reported texting while driving within the past week. This study tested the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and examined college student drivers’ use of cell phones to send and read text messages while driving.
Method:
Participants (n = 777) completed a 24-item instrument using a 7-point Likert scale where 1=Strongly Disagree and 7=Strongly Agree. The survey measured phone use while driving during the previous and upcoming week. Questions examined frequency of use, intent/likelihood to use their cell phone, how they and others feel about their cell use, and their perceptions of peers’ cell use.
Analysis/Results:
Participants revealed that sending texts was “bad” (M=5.73), “unwise” (M=5.89), “valuable” (M=2.81), and “positive” (M=2.42). They disclosed an awareness that reading texts was “bad” (M=5.40), “unwise” (M=5.57), “valuable” (M=2.99), and “positive” (M=2.65). Statistically significant correlations were observed between plans/intent to send/read texts and the feelings and approval of important people in students’ lives for sending/reading texts – Pearson r ranged from r=.19 to r=.27. Negative correlations were observed between plans/intent to send/read texts and feelings of guilt and going against individual principles. All correlations were significant and ranged from r=-.22 and r=-.32.
However, one-third (35.5%) of the participants reported they plan to send a text while driving during the next week, while 48.8% plan to read a text. A total of 46.2% of participants reported they were likely to send texts with 61.0% stating they would likely read a text. Plans for and the likelihood of sending and receiving texts were highly correlated with previous actions for these behaviors (as indicated by rates of sending and reading texts). Pearson r correlations ranged from r=.66 to r=.86 for these behaviors.
Lastly, participants indicated high levels of self-control over whether they send/read a text while driving (M=6.19 and M=6.1, respectively). They also indicated that they believed a high number of their friends/peers would send/read texts while driving (M=5.33 and M=5.66, respectively).
Conclusions:
Findings validate previous outcomes that beliefs and attitudes regarding texting, behavioral intentions, and perceived controls fail to result in positive behavior change. Further, the normative beliefs and subjective norms identified in TPB were not indicative of positive behavior change among subjects. Texting may need to be managed by prevention through regulation which can result in fines, imprisonment, and suspension of driver’s license.