(PS8-B42) Development and Validation of the Parental Responses to Driving Disclosure Scale (PRDDS)

           Communication, and specifically disclosure, is an important contributor to adolescent mental health and physical well-being (Kerr & Stattin, 2000). Learning to drive is a developmental milestone that also positively contributes to domains of well-being including physical health, education, and employment (Gao et al., 2022). Yet, driving carries risk as seven teens die each day due to motor vehicle crashes (CDC, 2021). These deaths are preventable, and parental communication about driving plays an important role in mitigating young driver’s risk (Simmons-Morton & Quimet, 2006). Yet, little is known about the factors contributing to the willingness of young drivers to communicate openly with their parents about driving. Importantly, literature lacks an appropriate measure of this concept. The aim of present study was to development and validate a measure of young driver’s perceptions of parental responses to their disclosure of driving risks, events, and errors, the Parental Responses to Driving Disclosure Scale (PRDDS). The study proceeded in two phases: scale development and psychometric validation.
           Preliminary data has been collected for Phase 1: PRDDS Scale Feedback. In this phase, PRDDS scale items were developed based on the targeted concept of ‘perceptions of parental responses to driving disclosure', defined as: adolescent’s anticipated parent responses to their sharing of information of a time when they were at risk of harm due to driving behaviors. Sixty-nine Likert-like scale items were generated based on the Baumrind’s (1991) parenting style domains including authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful parenting and parenting dimensions of warmth, behavioral control, psychological control, communication, trust, and autonomy support. Eight subject matter experts (SMEs) assessed the expanded 69 items for content validity based on Lawshe’s (1975) content validity ratio (CVR). A total of 35 items were retained having met statistical significance criteria. Eight cognitive interviews are currently being conducted with study participants regarding the clarity of the scale. The scale will be modified based on feedback gathered in these interviews.
           In Phase 2 of the study, a sample of young drivers (N = 100, ages 18-25) will complete the 35-item PRDDS along with measures of convergent validity. An exploratory factor analysis will extract the optimal number of factors for construct domains. The factors will be retained based on factor loadings (r ≥ 0.40) variance assessments, and scree plot analyses (Boateng et al., 2018). We hypothesize that small to moderate positive correlations between the PRDDS and parental warmth, parental feedback and communication will provide support for content validity. This study offers a preliminary examination of the PRDDS.