Abstract This short report explains how influences from peers and parents about drinking and driving shape the views and behaviors of teenagers. Driving while intoxicated is risky enough as it is, but when you add new and unexperienced drivers to the mix, the situation gets even more dangerous. Certain genders and behaviors make it more likely for a teenager to drink and drive or to ride along with a drunk driver. Participants in the studies ranged from fifteen year olds to nineteen year olds from all across the United States. This research shows how easy a teenagers mind is changed by the people around them and the impact role models have. Keywords: Teenage Drinking; Peer Influence; Drinking and Driving; Alcohol; Riding with a Drunk Driver Introduction A rite of passage for teenagers is receiving their driver licenses, but with new responsibility comes many risks as well.1 It is fairly common for teenage adolescents to binge drink with their friends, but does this lead to risky driving behaviors? There may be a decline in the amount of teenage related drunk driving fatal accidents in the recent years, but it is still a high percentage of deaths for teenagers.2 Parents and peers have a …show more content…
It is important at a young age they get the education and role models that will guide them to make the right decisions in their future. Children also need to be taught to say “no” to risky situations. It is not only influences that guide teenagers to drink and drive or to ride with a drunk driver but also gender and behavior. The more risky behavior a teenager partakes in, the more likely they are to drink and drive. Teenage drinking and driving fatalities have been going down, but it is still one of the leading causes of deaths in adolescents. Parents and peers are predictors of how the children they are a role model to behave once they grow up to make their own