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Table 3 Social norms toward handheld and hands-free cellphone use while driving behaviors

From: Driving contradictions: behaviors and attitudes regarding handheld and hands-free cellphone use while driving among young drivers

  Handhelda CUWDb Behaviors Hands-freec CUWD Behaviors  
Social normsd N(%e) Unacceptable Neutral Acceptable Unacceptable Neutral Acceptable P-valuef
Closest friends
 Talking on the phone 21 (34) 6 (10) 35 (56) 4 (7) 1 (2) 57 (92) < 0.0001
 Sending messagesg 46 (74) 1 (2) 15 (24) 15 (24) 6 (10) 41 (66) < 0.0001
 Reading messages 40 (65) 2 (3) 20 (32) 13 (21) 6 (10) 43 (69) < 0.0001
Parent or guardian
 Talking on the phone 38 (61) 2 (3) 22 (35) 13 (21) 4 (7) 45 (73) < 0.0001
 Sending messages 59 (95) 0 (0) 3 (5) 28 (45) 7 (11) 27 (44) < 0.0001
 Reading messages 56 (90) 1 (2) 5 (8) 26 (42) 9 (15) 27 (44) < 0.0001
Self as passenger
 Talking on the phone 24 (39) 3 (5) 35 (57) 7 (11) 2 (3) 53 (86) < 0.0001
 Sending messages 57 (92) 1 (2) 4 (7) 17 (27) 9 (15) 36 (58) < 0.0001
 Reading messages 50 (81) 3 (5) 9 (15) 16 (26) 8 (13) 38 (61) < 0.0001
  Forbidden Not Sure Permitted Forbidden Not Sure Permitted  
Permitted by lawh
 Talking on the phone 26 (43) 21 (34) 14 (23) 2 (3) 14 (23) 46 (74) NA
 Sending messages 54 (87) 6 (10) 2 (3) 9 (14) 26 (42) 27 (44) NA
 Reading messages 49 (79) 11 (18) 2 (3) 8 (13) 23 (37) 31 (50) NA
  1. Abbreviation: NA Not applicable
  2. aHandheld use was defined as physically holding the phone
  3. bCellphone use while driving (CUWD)
  4. cHands-free use was defined as using devices such as Bluetooth and speaker phone so there is no physical interaction between the driver and their phone when engaging in the aforementioned behaviors
  5. dParticipants were questioned about their perceived acceptability (social norms) of CUWD behaviors from three perspectives: those of their closest friends, those of their parent(s) or guardian(s), and their own, as passenger in someone else’s vehicle
  6. eRow percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding
  7. fP-value from the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test comparing each handheld CUWD behavior to its hands-free variant, bolded when < 0.05
  8. gMessages were defined as text or email messages
  9. hParticipants were questioned with regard to the perceived permissibility of CUWD behaviors on a legislative level
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Injury Epidemiology

ISSN: 2197-1714