National estimates of formal driver education participation among adolescent drivers

Background: Driver inexperience is a main factor contributing to the high motor vehicle crash rate among adolescents. Provision of quality instruction prior to licensure is crucial for promoting knowledge and skill acquisition in this at-risk population. Purpose: To describe the participation of adolescents in formal driver education (DE) by sociodemographic factors in a nationally-representative sample. Significance: First nationally-representative survey of young drivers to describe formal DE participation by demographics and presence of state-mandated DE laws. Methodology: The National Young Driver Survey was conducted in 2006 among a nationally-representative sample of 5,665 9th through 11th graders in 68 public high schools in 34 states. Analyses were restricted to 1,770 licensed drivers, who reported participation in formal DE instruction. Findings/Results: A total of 78.8% (95% CI: 69.1, 86.0) of adolescent drivers reported participating in formal DE instruction. Most adolescents, 55.2%, participated in both behind-the-wheel and classroom instruction. However, 10.4% had only classroom instruction and 13.1% had only behind-the-wheel instruction. Participation in formal instruction was most common for adolescents who were Caucasian, earned mostly A's and B's, and attended a school in a suburban school district. Adolescents living in states with mandatory DE laws were nearly twice as likely to participate in both classroom and behind-the-wheel instruction compared to adolescents in non-mandatory states (62.0% vs. 34.5%, p=0.04). Conclusions/Recommendations: Participation in DE significantly varies by academic achievement, state-level policy, urbanicity and race. These data serve as a foundation from which suggested programmatic and policy-level changes to the DE infrastructure can be based.