The Impact of Cell Phone Use on Young Drivers' Road Safety

RUNNING HEAD: PSYC105 REPORT 2018 1
PSYC105 Report 2018
Name
Institution

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PSYC105 report 2018
Introduction
Road traffic nowadays is naturally dangerous. Compared to other modes of transport, for example,
air traffic and railways, the road traffic system was not planned with safety as a jumping-off point.
Notably, cell phone usage among young drivers has turned out to be increasingly common in the latest
years (Cazzulino, Burke, Muller, Arbogast, & Upperman, 2014). Young individuals are the most expected
to accept the application of new technology and least expected to recognize the risks related with cell
phone use while driving (CPWD; described in this context as talking on the phone only) and sending a
text while driving (TextWD) (Chaurand, Bossart, & Delhomme, 2015). Owing to rawness, young drivers
are most at risk when using cell phones while driving and thus ought to be the mark of most of the
prevention measures (Tay & Watson, 2002).
As we are all aware, driving is an intricate process that involves eyes-hand-foot coordination
(Darçın & Alkan, 2015 and thus futile coordination usually results in road accidents. It has been
established that the young drivers contribute to more accidents because of their highest affinities of using
cell phone whiles driving compared to other groups of people. As stated by Waddell and Wiener (2014),
activities involving the cell phone, for example, calling and messaging could contribute to the distraction
of the driver. Previous studies have also shown that the cell phone use while driving decreases the
performance of a driver in many areas (Hallett, Lambert, & Regan, 2012; White, Hyde, Walsh, &
Watson, 2010). For instance, drivers spend less time observing vehicle’s mirrors and their instruments
when using a cell phone while driving (Waddell & Wiener, 2014).
Previous research has disclosed that young adults particularly males have a habit of using a cell
phone while driving more than female or older drivers (Darçın & Alkan, 2015; Waddell & Wiener, 2014;
White, Hyde, Walsh, & Watson, 2010). The findings are still not conclusive. For that reason, this study
aims to identify the contributory factors that affect young drivers to participate in TextWD and CPWD
and propose a basis for prevention strategies and campaigns that can effectively thwart recent and future
generations from using cell phones while driving.

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Research Hypothesis
The three hypothesis of this present study can be stated as Gain-framed, compared to loss-framed,
safety messages about mobile phone use while driving will be more effective in changing people's
intentions towards this behaviour ; high issue involvement inducing, compared to low issue involvement
inducing, safety messages will be more effective in changing people's intentions about unsafe driving
behaviour and; gain-framed safety messages about mobile phone use will be most effective when paired
with a high issue involvement inducing message
Method
Sample Population
The survey was rolled online and completed by 892 teens and young adult drivers, but only 343
were considered as the rest were deemed incomplete. All the 343 informants met all of the screening
standards: had learner’s permit or a driver’s license, drove more often, possessed a cell phone and were
aged between 15 and 26 years. Eighty six (25.07%) of the respondents were male and 255 (74.34) were
female.
Procedure
The survey was piloted using Qualtrics® software (from August 24 to September 2018). The
respondents were invited to cooperate on a web survey about the association between the use of mobile
phone while driving and the age. The enumerator clarified to the informants what the survey was all about
before its start and presented a consent form from the Macquarie University, Department of Psychology.
Additionally, the participants were assured that their identity would remain anonymous throughout the
study and their responses would only be used for study purpose. Then, all the participants were asked to
evaluate the content of a set of questions about the use of the phone while driving and some road safety
parameters. On average, it took the participants 15-20 minutes to complete the online questionnaire.
Materials
The road carnage imaged used in the introduction part of the questionnaire was intentionally used

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to present the content of the road safety and ramifications when these regulations are violated to sway the
attention of the target respondents towards giving honest answers about various parameters of the study
topic (Tay, 2005). This image was also accompanied by phone texting image by a person who is driving
and very reluctant to observe what is happening on the road (Ruiter, Abraham, & Kok, 2001). At the end
of the questionnaire, a thank you picture was used to commend the respondents for sparing their time to
getting involved in the survey (Nathanail & Adamos, 2013). The survey collected a measure of drivers’
intentions to take/make phone calls (talking) in addition to their intentions to make/take text messages
(texting) while driving.
Survey Validation
The survey elements were tested for reliability, and the discriminant and convergent validity was also
evaluated for each item. Cronbach’s alpha was applied to test the reliability for each of the 15 constructs
in the model (Gupta & Rastogi, 2016). Based on this examination, if Cronbach’s alpha for a particular
construct was found to be less than 0.71, it was not used from the final analysis (Corben, Logan,
Fanciulli, Farley, & Cameron, 2010). Nonetheless, if the minimum criteria was deemed achievable by
dropping one or more stuffs while keeping no less than 2 items, only the items that were considered
unreliable were omitted, not the whole construct.
Results
Descriptive Statistics
Descriptive statistics analysis (i.e., frequencies, minimum and maximum values, confidence
intervals and standard-deviation) were completed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)
version 22.0.
Demographics
Demographic data of the respondents was captured under age, gender status, driving experience, license
ownership and use of mobile phones.
As for the age parameter, majority of the participants were aged appeoximately19 years.
Variable | Obs Mean Std. Dev. Min Max