Exploring the influences of country-level factors on mid-age women's drink driving attitudes

Drink driving remains a major cause of serious and fatal car crashes in Australia and internationally. While this problem is more prevalent among male drivers, the rates of female intoxicated drivers have increased steadily over the past decades in many motorised countries. While many countries, including Australia, have a legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit of .05 or higher, some countries have moved towards a zero –or low tolerance approach to drink driving; several European countries, including Sweden, Hungary, Slovakia, and Estonia currently enforce .00 or .02 BAC limits. The current study aimed to increase the understanding of women’s attitudes towards drinking before driving by exploring the impact of country-level differences in BAC-levels and tolerance towards drink driving. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of Australian and Swedish mid-aged women, a group that has received little prior research attention. Thematic analysis explored participant’s knowledge and attitudes towards drink driving. Several key themes were developed from the data including women’s understanding of the relationship between alcohol consumption and BAC levels, the effect of alcohol on driving ability, views of the legal BAC limit in each country, cognitive disassociation between alcohol and driving, and the morality and ethical implications of drink driving. Findings illustrate that women’s attitudes towards driving while intoxicated are influenced by country-level BAC and tolerance towards drink driving. Implications for road safety are discussed. Future research may expand on the knowledge of women’s drink driving attitudes by conducting cross-cultural studies with broader samples of women.

• Record URL:
  • http://www.icadtsinternational.com/files/documents/2013_132.pdf
• 
• Authors:
  • Watling, H
  • Armstrong, K
• Conference:
  • International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety (T2013), 20th, 2013, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
• Publication Date: 2013-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 788-93
• Monograph Title: 20th International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety Conference Proceedings, 25-28 August 2013, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Brisbane, Australia

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attitudes; Blood alcohol levels; Data collection; Drivers; Drunk driving; Females; Intoxication
• Uncontrolled Terms: International comparison; Interviews; Safe systems (road users)
• Geographic Terms: Australia; Sweden
• ATRI Terms: Attitude; Blood alcohol content; Drink driving; Female; International comparison; Interview
• ITRD Terms: 2267: Attitude (psychol); 1788: Woman
• Subject Areas: Safety and Human Factors; Society; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01500817
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ITRD, ATRI
• Created Date: Dec 5 2013 8:50AM