190844 Ethnographic Observations of Families with Teen Drivers: Report on Family Interviews

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Andrea Lynn Gold, BA , Center for Injury Research and Prevention, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Frances K. Barg, PhD , Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Kenneth R. Ginsburg, MD , Adolescent Medicine, The Children's Hosptial of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Flaura K. Winston, MD, PhD , The Center for Injury Research and Prevention, The Children's Hosptial of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Background/Purpose:

To utilize an ethnographic approach to identify existing attitudes and skills parents and teens use in teaching and monitoring new teen drivers and to identify perceived barriers and successes in the process of learning to drive.

Methods:

Participant observation, and in-depth semi-structured interviews.

Results/Outcomes: Approximately 70 families have been contacted to date to participate in the family unit research. Of those families, 10 have agreed to enroll. Trends in the data indicate emerging themes regarding parent and teen driving attitudes and experiences. Specific themes are: Driving conversations, view of learning barriers, and view of a positive driving experience. The stage in the driving process has shown to have an impact on an individuals' view.

Conclusions: Taken together, these initial interviews begin to show the promise of an ethnographic approach for addressing methods to further develop teen driving research and intervention development.

Learning Objectives:
Identify how families manage and view the learning and early driving experience.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to be an abstract presenter because I am the person responsible for collecting the data. I have preformed all the interviews with the family units, synthesized the results, and have internally reported the findings to date.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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