Evaluation of Female Driver Responses
to Impaired Driving Messages
Final Report -- December 2000
Alcohol-involved crashes and fatalities have dropped substantially over the past 15 years. However, data on alcohol-involved drivers in fatal crashes show a slower decline for women than men. Thus, women constituted a larger percentage of alcohol-involved and intoxicated drivers in fatal crashes in 1998 than 10 to 15 years ago. This finding raises an important question, Are impaired driving messages adequately tailored for women? As women comprise less than 20% of all impaired drivers, persons designing anti-DWI messages generally have not emphasized reaching this population. We need to assess whether public service messages should be designed specifically for women.
To explore this premise, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) awarded a task order to the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) to conduct a dozen focus groups in two States. The focus groups examined young women's (18 to 35 years of age) perceptions of anti-DWI messages. This study explored the effectiveness of several persuasive techniques and different mediums on women's perceptions and expected behavior regarding impaired driving. The study was designed to investigate emotional, informational, and authoritative public service announcement (PSA) approaches and compare the participants' preferences for television, radio, and print PSAs. The PSAs in this study were included as examples of different types of media presentations.
This report describes our methods for conducting the focus groups and our subsequent analysis. The findings are derived from the focus group discussions, analysis of rating and ranking forms, and analysis of participant demographic data. The focus group discussions covered-
The report characterizes the responses of the young women to the 13 PSAs they viewed and explores emergent themes. The quotations in italics from our notes and tapes further illustrate points made in the qualitative analysis. Finally, we summarize the implications of our findings for people designing PSA campaigns to reduce drinking and driving among young women and make some suggestions for future studies.
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