Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #117504

Gwendolyn Bergen, MS MPH, Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 624 North Broadway, Room 539, Baltimore, MD 21205, 410-338-1882, gbergen@jhsph.edu, Katherine Clegg Smith, PhD, Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins University, 624 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, and Andrea Gielen, ScD, Health Policy and Management/Division-Social and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 624 N. Broadway, Room 750 HH, Baltimore, MD 21205.

Purpose: Adolescent drinking and driving, while still a problem in the United States, has shown a significant decline since the early 1980's. The zero tolerance laws for adolescent drinking and driving have been partially credited for this decrease. Little is known about adolescents' understanding of and perceptions of the implementation of this law. This study is a qualitative exploration of adolescents' perceptions of the Maryland zero tolerance law for underage drinking and driving.

Methods: Focus groups with adolescents aged 16 to 20 were conducted in Baltimore County, Maryland. Adolescents were questioned and discussed their knowledge of the law, their perceptions of the consequences of the law, and their significant others' perceptions of drinking and driving.

Results: The intent of the zero tolerance law is that teens should never drive after drinking. Despite this adolescents still differentiate between driving after one to two drinks and driving drunk. While they think the second behavior is wrong, they find the first behavior more acceptable and perceive little possibility of being caught or being injured as a result.

Conclusion: These results suggest that an increase in enforcement should lead to an increase in adolescents' perceptions of susceptibility of being stopped by the police thus decreasing adolescent drinking and driving. The focus group qualitative methodology used here helped to shed light on adolescent understanding of the zero tolerance law.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe adolescents' perceptions and knowledge of the zero tolerance law for underage drinking and driving.
• Identify the ways in which qualitative research, specifically focus groups, can be used to study a problem in public health.

Keywords: Adolescents, Injuries

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.