Teen Safe Driving
Moderator’s Guide & Screeners
Prepared for:
Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
Developed by:
PerformTech Inc.
810 King Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
April 30, 2007
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Introduction 1
Project Background 1
Focus Group Details 3
Focus Group Audience 3
Focus Group Schedule 3
Parent Focus Groups 4
Teen Focus Groups 10
Strategies for Recording Responses: 14
Logistic Arrangements 14
Appendix A: Parent Focus Group Screener 15
Appendix B: Teen Focus Group Screener 19
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for 15 to 20-year olds, causing roughly one-third of all deaths for this age group. Teenagers are over-represented in traffic crashes both as drivers and as passengers. On the basis of miles driven, teenagers are involved in three times as many fatal crashes as all other drivers. The high crash involvement rate for this age group is caused primarily by their lack of maturity and driving experience coupled with their overconfidence and risk-taking behaviors. High risk behaviors include failure to wear seat belts, speeding, driving while impaired (from alcohol or other drugs), drowsy, or distracted. This age group is particularly susceptible to distractions caused by other passengers in the vehicle, electronic devices, and music.
A larger percentage of fatal crashes involving teenage drivers are single-vehicle crashes compared to those involving other drivers. In this type of fatal crash, the vehicle usually leaves the road and overturns or hits a roadside object such as a tree or a pole.
In general, fewer teens wear their seat belts compared to other drivers.
A larger proportion of teen fatal crashes involve speeding, or going too fast for road conditions, compared to other drivers.
More teen fatal crashes occur when passengers, usually other teenagers, are in the car than do crashes involving other drivers. Two out of three teens who die as passengers are in vehicles driven by other teenagers.
Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide has been hired by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop a communication strategy to address this serious problem. CDC’s goal for the project is to increase awareness of the important role parents play in managing their teenage drivers’ behaviors, as well as educating their teens about high-risk activities that lead to motor vehicle crashes, the number one killer of America’s youth.
Ogilvy conducted an environmental scan of driver safety programs and research to determine what strategies have been tried and what evidence exists to support potential initiatives.
A key finding of this environmental scan is that, while parents can be a strong influence on their children’s driving habits, very few teen safety programs actually target parents. The environmental scan also indicated that very few teen driving initiatives mention Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) and that only a very small percentage of parents are aware of the licensing restrictions in effect in their state.
Ogilvy established the following as the social marketing strategy to be pursued in this project:
By increasing parental awareness of the need to manage their teens’ driving and teaching them how to reduce high-risk activities, parents will more closely monitor and manage their children, leading to a decrease in motor vehicle crashes involving teens.
Ogilvy has developed a series of creative concepts for motivating parents to speak to their teens about their driving behaviors and to seek out additional information about GDL. The next major step in this project is to test these concepts, in a series of focus group discussions with their target audience, parents of teen drivers aged 15 to 18 years of age and with the teen drivers themselves.
The purpose of this document is to describe how focus group participants will be recruited and how these focus groups will be conducted. In the paragraphs below, the following topics will be addressed:
Focus Group Audiences
Focus Group Schedule
Parent Focus Groups (Objectives and Questions)
Teen Focus Groups (Objectives and Questions)
Focus Group Logistics
Strategies for Recording Responses
Focus Group Screeners
The creative concepts being tested are directed at parents of teen drivers. Therefore the primary audience for the focus groups will be parents of teen drivers aged 15 to 18 years. A secondary audience of the focus groups will be teen drivers themselves, both boys and girls. To enhance the quality of responses from the teen drivers, separate focus groups will be held with teen boys and girls.
A total of six focus group discussions will be held in two locations: Four discussions will be held with parents of teens and two discussions will be held with teens (one with girls and one with boys). CDC is considering the following cities for these focus groups:
Atlanta, GA
Chicago, IL
Denver, CO
Orange County, CA
San Francisco, CA
Seattle, WA
Since GDL laws will be one of the topics covered in the focus groups, it will be important that the two cities chosen be covered by similar GDL laws.
The schedule for the focus groups will largely depend on obtaining clearance from the Office of Management and Budget for conducting the focus groups.
The following schedule is the recommended approach for completing the six focus groups as efficiently as possible.
City 1 - Day 1: Parent Focus Group 1 – 6 to 7:45 PM
Day 2: Parent Focus Group 2 – 6 to 7:45 PM
Day 2 Parent Focus Group 3 – 8: to 9:45 PM
Day 3: Travel to City 2
City 2: Day 3: Parent Focus Group 4 _ 6 to 7:45 PM
Day 4: Teen Focus Group – Girls 4 to 5:45 PM
Day 4: Teen Focus Group – Boys 6: to 7:45 PM
All the focus groups will be held at the facilities of The Field Work Network, a consortium of focus group field service companies headquartered in Chicago Illinois, with field service facilities in each of the proposed cities above.
The Field Work Network, working though its affiliates in both selected cities will assume responsibility for recruiting participants from their collective databases of more than 200,000 individuals, providing the meeting and observation rooms, and videotaping the sessions. PerformTech will provide the facilitator and Ogilvy will provide an observer to take notes. The CDC project staff are encouraged to observe as many of the sessions as possible.
The size of any one focus group will be limited to 12 participants.
Parent Focus Group Objectives
The parent focus groups are designed to answer the following research questions:
To what extent are parents of teen drivers and teen drivers aware of the provisions of GDL in their State?
Are parents willing and able to talk to their teens about driving?
Given a variety of creative concepts, what messages/themes/delivery mechanisms generate the best parent response?
Specific objectives for the focus groups include the following:
Determine parental perception of the magnitude of the teen driving risk
Determine to what extent parents are currently talking to their teens about driving and setting rules
Identify the themes of parental conversations
Determine if there are any differences in conversations with girls and with boys
Determine the driving rules parents are establishing and to what extent parents are enforcing those rules for their teens
Determine the level of awareness and understanding of parents with regard to GDL
Identify what would motivate parents to visit the DriveSmart.org website
Identify what parents would like or expect to find on the DriveSmart.org website
Determine parent reactions to each of the creative concepts developed for parents
Topics and Questions
The objectives stated above define to some extent the topics that will be addressed during each of the focus groups. In the paragraphs below, the topics and related questions that will be covered in each focus group are presented.
Introduction of Focus Group
Purpose
Confidentiality of responses
Questions:
How many teenagers do each of you have?
How old are they?
Boy or girl?
What type of license do they have? (Learner’s permit, provisional license, full license)
On average how frequently do your teens drive? (rarely, several times a week, every day)
How would you describe your child’s driving ability/safety on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being outstanding?
How would you describe your driving ability/safety on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being outstanding?
How would you describe a “safe driver?”
What do you believe are the riskiest things teens (in general) are likely to do as drivers?
Have any of your children been involved in any type of car collision did they ever hit anything?) Please describe the circumstances.
Have any of your children ever received a traffic citation or a warning for a moving violation? Please describe the circumstances.
Compared to drugs, sexually transmitted disease, school violence, and other threats to your teens, how would you rate the risk of being killed or seriously injured in an automobile crash?
How many of you were aware that car crashes are the leading cause of death for teens?
Parent Interactions with Teen Drivers
For those of you whose child has been involved in a crash, did you take any actions as a consequence of the crash? If so, what actions? If not, did you think of taking any action? Did your teen have to pay anything ( repairs, insurance increases)
For those of you whose child has received a citation or warning, did you take any actions as a consequence? If so what actions? If not, did you think of taking any actions? Who paid the fine?
For all of you, have you established any family rules about the driving privilege (use of seat belts, passengers)? Please describe.
Probe for the following types of rules: seat belts, drinking and then driving, riding with a driver that has been drinking, allowing other teens in the car, driving curfew, leaving the car with an empty tank, speeding, running stop lights or any other traffic violations, etc.
How have you communicated these rules to your child?
Have you ever had to enforce those rules? Please describe the circumstances.
Follow-up question for those who have not imposed rules
Can you talk to me a little about why you have not imposed specific rules? Is it due to lack of time, lack of need, lack of information on what to impose, or something else?
Has anyone ever heard of a “written driving contract” between parents and teen drivers?
Follow-Up Questions:
What have you heard?
For those who have not heard about a driving contract – (or if no one has heard of it) a driving contract establishes very specific conditions under which a teen driver can maintain their driving privileges, what behaviors are forbidden, (e.g. failure to wear a seat belt, allowing other teens in the car, drinking, etc.) and what the consequences will be for breaking the contract. Is this something you would consider for your teen driver?
If not, why not?
Has anyone created a driving contract for your teens?
What has your experience been with the contract?
An issue that comes up all the time with teen is riding with other new drivers. Have you ever spoken to your teen about this?
If yes, what have you said?
If no, why not?
Have you established any specific rules about riding with another new driver? What type of rules?
Probe for rules: wearing a seat belt (even in the back seat), not riding when the number of passengers exceed a certain number, behaving appropriately in the car, only riding with drivers with a minimum amount of driving experience.
How often do you talk to your children about their driving? What do you talk about?
Have you ever been uncertain about what to tell your child about driving or what rules to establish? (e.g. how much experience before carrying passengers, driving in bad weather or on the Interstate, riding with a new driver)
Is there any information or are there any tools that you would like to have to help you deal with driving issues that come up?
Have you had serious conversations with your child about other serious threats (drugs, etc.)?
How have those conversations gone?
What do you think your child’s reaction would be if you started a serious talk about driving?
Have you seen any media messages about teen driving? Can you tell me what they were about?
Knowledge of Graduated Licensing Provisions
Have any of you heard the term Graduated Driver Licensing or Provisional Licensing? – (Show of hands)
Can anyone explain what it is?
Can anyone explain the specific licensing requirements in this state? (describe them if no one can explain them)
What do you think about these regulations?
Have you ever spoken with your children about these requirements?
What do your teens think about graduated licensing?
A key provision of most GDL laws is specifying the amount of time a new driver (someone with a learner’s permit) must practice driving with a parent or other adult before they can “go solo.” How much practice time with you did your teen have under their learner’s permit?
Do you think that was enough time, too much time, or not enough time? Why do you think that?
Do you believe the GDL restrictions are being enforced in your community?
Are you enforcing these regulations with your children?
Follow-up question for those who ARE enforcing the GDL requirements –
Can you provide an example of how you have enforced the GDL requirements? What requirement and what did you do
Follow-up question for those who ARE NOT enforcing the GDL requirements to determine reasons why not.
Can you tell me why you think you are not enforcing these requirements? Probe for possible replies –
I did not know enough about GDL
I rely on my child being able to drive
I trust my child and do not want “police” him (or her)
Follow-up question if no one admits to not enforcing the GDL
Think about other parents of teen drivers you know, are they enforcing the GDL as far as you know?
Why do you think they are not enforcing GDL for their teen drivers?
Reaction to Creative Concepts
As part of this CDC initiative, the sponsors of this focus group have developed some ideas to encourage parents to take a more active role in their children’s driving. I am going to distribute a packet of concepts to get your reaction to them. [Describe how the concepts will be used]
First, on the worksheet please rank the concepts from 1 to 5 (with 5 representing the concept you like best and 1 representing the concept you like least.)
I would like each of you to tell me which concept you liked best, what it meant to you and why you like it (follow-up question on reaction to the visual) (follow-up question – is there anything that could be improved on this concept?
Next I want each of you to tell me which one you like least and why. (follow-up question on reaction to the visual) Is there anything that could be improved that would make you respond to it more positively?
What do you think the primary message of each of these concepts is? (go through each concept)
What actions are you supposed to take? (go through each of the concepts)
Did anyone notice the website listed in the concepts?
Why do you think that website is listed?
What would you expect to find on this website?’
How likely is it that someone like yourself would you visit that site after seeing materials like these? Why?
For those who do not think someone would visit the site, is there anything that could be added to that site that would make it more likely for them to visit it?
Final Thoughts
How worried are you about your teens when they are driving?
What do you think would help you feel more confident about your teen’s driving?
Teen Focus Groups
Two focus groups will be held with teens in City #`2. The groups will be separated by gender but the same questions will be asked to both groups.
The teen focus groups are designed to answer the following research questions:
To what extent do teens talk to their parents about driving?
How familiar are teens with GDL regulations
How would teens react to their parents becoming more involved in their driving
Specific objectives for the teen focus groups include the following:
Determine how teens rate their driving ability
Determine teen perception of the magnitude of their risk of being involved in a serious crash
Determine to what extent teens perceive their parents are currently talking to them about driving
Identify what messages teens have heard from their parents
Identify what driving rules teens believe their parents have imposed
Determine to what extent teens perceive their parents are enforcing these driving rules
Determine the level of awareness and understanding of teens with regard to GDL
Determine teen reaction to creative concepts developed for parents
Identify how teens think their parents would react to the creative concepts
Identify how teens think other teens will react if their parents adopt the recommendations in the creative concepts
Identify how teens might react to conversations with their parents about driving
Identify the most effective theme that parents should pursue in these conversations
The objectives stated above define to some extent the topics that will be addressed during each of the focus groups. In the paragraphs below, the topics and related questions that will be covered in each focus group are presented.
Introduction of Focus Group
Purpose
Confidentiality of responses
Questions:
How old are you?
?
What type of license do you have? (Learner’s permit, provisional license, full license)
On average how frequently do you drive? (rarely, several times a week, every day)
How would you describe your driving ability/safety on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being outstanding
How would you describe your parents’ driving ability/safety on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being outstanding?
How would you describe a “safe driver?”
What do you believe are the riskiest things “typical” teen drivers do?
Have you ever been involved in any type of car collision (did you ever hit anything?) Please describe the circumstances.
Have you ever received a traffic citation or a warning for a moving violation? Please describe the circumstances.
Compared to drugs, sexually transmitted disease, school violence, and other threats to teens, how would you rate automobile crashes as a threat.
How many are aware that car crashes are the leading cause of death among teens?
Parent Interactions with Teen Drivers
For those of you who have been involved in a crash, did your parents take any actions as a consequence of the crash? If so, what actions
For those of you who have received a citation or warning, did your parents take any actions as a consequence? If so what actions? Who paid the fine?
For all of you, have your parents established any family rules about the driving privilege (use of seat belts, passengers)? Please describe.
How did your parents communicate these rules to you?
Probe for conversations and written contracts
Have your parents ever had to enforce those rules? Please describe the circumstances.
How often do your parents talk to you about your driving? What do they talk about?
Have your parents had serious conversations with you about other serious threats (drugs, etc.)
How have those conversations gone?
What types of things parents should be doing to ensure that their teens drive more safely?
Knowledge of Graduated Licensing Provisions
Have any of you heard the term Graduated Driver Licensing or Provisional Licensing? – (Show of hands)
Can anyone explain what it is?
Can anyone explain the specific licensing requirements in this state? (describe them if no one can explain them)
What do you think about these regulations?
How do you feel about having restrictions placed on your ability to drive? (explore how they view driving – is it a right or a privilege?)
Have you ever spoken with your parents about these requirements?
Do you believe these restrictions are being enforced in your community?
Are your parents enforcing these regulations with you?
Reaction to Creative Concepts
As part of this CDC initiative, the sponsors of this focus group have developed some ideas to encourage parents to take a more active role in their children’s driving. I am going to distribute a packet of concepts to get your reaction to them.
First, on the worksheet please rank the concepts from 1 to 5 (with 5 representing the concept you like best and 1 representing the concept you like least. Remember these are designed for your parents.
I would like each of you to tell me which concept you liked most, what it meant to you and why you like it
Next I want each of you to tell me which one you like least and why.
What do you think the primary message of each of these concepts is? (go through each concept)
What actions are parents supposed to take? (go through each of the concepts)
Did anyone notice the website listed in the concepts
Why do you think that website is listed?
What would you expect to find on this website?’
How likely is it that your parents would visit that site? Why
For those who do not think your parents would visit the site, is there anything that could be added to that site that would make it more likely for them to visit it?
Do you think this site could have information that would be useful for you?
Now let’s think about your parents following some of the advice contained in these concepts. Imagine your parent sitting you down and saying it is time we had a talk about your driving – how would you react?
Now imagine your parent asking you to sign a contract about the rules you have to follow in order to have access to a car – what do you think your reaction would be?
How do you think your friends would react if their parents started imposing more rules or asking them to sign a contract?
Final Thoughts
How worried are your parents about you when you are driving?
What do you think would help them feel more confident about your driving?
How comfortable are you when you are driving?
Is there anything that you think would motivate you to drive more carefully?
Follow-Up Questions
For each response offered, the PerformTech facilitator will ask follow-up questions. There are two purposes for these follow-up questions:
To encourage the respondent to elaborate or clarify the response.
To encourage other participants to react to the response, to determine if it reflects their opinions as well or is more of an anomaly
PerformTech will provide a facilitator for each discussion. In addition, each session will be videotaped with a stationery camera. We recommend against providing a complete transcript of the discussions. We have found that this approach is very costly and does not yield very usable results. Instead we encourage Ogilvy to provide at least one observer who is responsible for taking notes and excerpts that best represent the range of opinions expressed.
The Field Work Network will be responsible for handling the logistics for the six focus group discussions. This will include recruiting and screening participants, paying a small honorarium to each participant, providing simple refreshments (sodas and snacks), greeting the participants and signing them in, providing the discussion rooms, and videotaping the sessions.
Form Approved
OMB
Control No. 0920-----
Expiration Date:-------
City 1: Three Parent Focus Groups (12 participants for each group
Day 1: Parent Focus Group 1 – 6 to 7:45 PM
Day 2: Parent Focus Group 2 – 6 to 7:45 PM
Day 2 Parent Focus Group 3 – 8: to 9:45 PM
City 2: One Parent Focus Group (12 participants for each group)
Day 2 Parent Focus Group 4 - 6 to 7:45 PM
Focus Group Screener
Introduction: May I speak to the head of the household, please. We are conducting focus groups with parents of teenage drivers to identify issues about safe driving and strategies for improving teen driving behavior. Would you be interested in participating in this focus group scheduled for (Month/Day at ___________o’clock. ? If Yes, continue.
Primary Screening Questions
Are you a
licensed driver?
If Yes, Continue If No
TERMINATE
Are you the
parent or guardian of a teenager aged 15 to 18?.
If
Yes, Continue If No TERMINATE
(Goal is to have 50/50 split between Mothers and Fathers)
What is the age of your teenager?
15
16
17
18
(Goal is an even distribution of ages)
Does this child
have a driver’s license or learner’s permit?
If
Yes, Continue If No TERMINATE
Which of the following types of licenses does your child have?
Learner’s Permit
Restricted or provisional license
Full or unrestricted license
Goal is even distribution across three license types)
Is your child a boy or a girl?
Boy _____
Girl______
(Goal is 50/50 split but can accept as high as 70/30 split in either direction)
Is this your first child to start driving?
Yes
No _ what are ages of other driving children?
(Goal is to get at least 3 parents with first child driving and three parents with multiple drivers)
Would you say your teen drives:
Never Terminate
Rarely
Frequently
Every day
(Goal is to get no more that two parents of teens who rarely drive)
Does your child have regular access to a car?
No – Terminate
Yes – access to the family car
Yes – teen has own car
(Goal is to have mix of teens driving family car and teens who have their own car)
Which of the following types of driving does your child do:
Drives to school
Drives for errands
Drives to work
Drives for other reasons, - ask parent to identify
One of the topics we will be discussing is Graduated Driver Licensing (or provisional licensing) for new drivers. How much would you say you know about Graduated Driver Licensing in ________(insert State name)
I have no knowledge of GDL laws
I am familiar with GDL laws
I have a very solid understanding of the GDL laws n my State
(Goal is to have a mix of familiarity with GDL)
How would you describe yourself with regard to your teen’s driving?
I don’t impose rules on my teen’s driving – my teen driver knows what he or she is doing
I have established rules for my teen’s driving and enforce them some of the time.
I have a long list of rules and I am constantly enforcing them and checking up on him or her
(Goal is to get a mix of parent anxiety)
Has your child or any of your child’s friends been involved in a car crash
Yes
No
(Goal is to have at least two parents who know a teen with crash experience)
Secondary Screening Question:
What is your race?
White __________ (7 per group)
Black or African American _________ (2-3 per group)
Hispanic or Latino ___________ (1-2 per group)
Asian/American Indian or Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander/Other Ethnicity_________ (1-2 per group)
Confirm Date and Time of Focus Group.
Form Approved
OMB
Control No. 0920-----
Expiration Date:-------
City 2 - Two Teen Focus Groups (12 participants for each group)
Day 1: Girl Focus Group – 4 to 5:45 PM
Day 2: Boy Focus Group – 4 to 5:45 PM
Teens recruited for these focus groups cannot be related to parents participating in Parent Group.
Focus Group Screener
Parent Introduction: May I speak to the head of the household, please. We are conducting focus groups with teenage drivers to identify strategies for reducing unsafe driving behaviors in this age group. Is there a teenager aged 15 to 18 in your household?
If Yes, Continue If No TERMINATE
May I have your permission to ask your child some questions to see if they would be a candidate for this focus group?
Is your child a boy or a girl?
Boy
Girl
(Recruit for appropriate focus group depending on response)
Teen Introduction
We are conducting focus groups on teenage driving. We are interested in finding out what younger drivers think about driving and what you think might be good ways to get teen drivers to change these behaviors. Would you be interested in participating in this focus group scheduled for XX at ___________o’clock. ? If Yes, continue.
Primary Screening Questions
How old are you? ______________
If older than 18 or younger than 15: TERMINATE
If aged between 15-18 – (see quotas below)
Age 15- (3-4 per group max.)
Age 16-(3-4 per group max.)
Age 17-(2-3 per group max.)
Age 18-(2-3 per group max.)
Do you currently have your driver’s license or learner’s permit?
No – Terminate
Yes - -Continue
Which of the following types of licenses do you have?
Learner’s Permit
Restricted or provisional license
Full or unrestricted license
(Goal is even distribution across three license types)
Do you have any “behind the wheel” experience?
Yes_______ Continue
No________ Terminate
How often do you drive?
Never Terminate
Rarely
Frequently
Every day
(Goal is to get a mix of driving frequency)
Do you have access to a car?
No – Terminate
Yes – I have access to the family car
Yes – I have my own car
(Goal is to have mix of teens driving family car and teens who have their own car)
Which of the following types of driving do you do:
Drive to school
Drive for errands
Drive to work
Drives for other reasons, - ask teen to identify
One of the topics we will be discussing is Graduated Driver Licensing (or provisional licensing) for new drivers. How much would you say you know about Graduated Driver Licensing in ________(insert State name)
I have no knowledge of GDL laws
I am familiar with GDL laws
I have a very solid understanding of the GDL laws n my State
(Goal is to have a mix of familiarity with GDL)
How would you describe your parents with regard to your driving?
They don’t impose rules on my driving.
They have established rules for my driving and enforce them some of the time.
They have a long list of rules and are constantly enforcing them and checking up on me.
(Goal is to get a mix of parent strictness)
Have you or a friend of yours ever been involved in a car crash
Yes
No
(Goal is to have at least two teens who at least know a teen with crash experience)
Secondary Screening Question:
What is your race?
White __________ (7 per group)
Black or African American _________ (2-3 per group)
Hispanic or Latino ___________ (1-2 per group)
Asian/American Indian or Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander/Other Ethnicity_________ (1-2 per group)
Confirm Date and Time of Focus Group. Remind participants that they must bring their driver’s license or learners permit with them to the focus group.
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | Traffic Safety Tool for Employers |
| Author | PerformTech, Inc. |
| Last Modified By | cww6 |
| File Modified | 2008-01-18 |
| File Created | 2007-05-09 |