Overview

• 75% of all American teens ages 12-17 own a cell phone, and 66% use their phones to send or receive text messages.
• Older teens are more likely than younger teens to have cell phones and use text messaging; 82% of teens ages 16-17 have a cell phone and 76% of that cohort are cell texters.
• One in three (34%) texting teens ages 16-17 say they have texted while driving. That translates into 26% of all American teens ages 16-17.
• Half (52%) of cell-owning teens ages 16-17 say they have talked on a cell phone while driving. That translates into 43% of all American teens ages 16-17.
• 48% of all teens ages 12-17 say they have been in a car when the driver was texting.
• 40% say they have been in a car when the driver used a cell phone in a way that put themselves or others in danger.

Introduction

As early as 2006, and well before texting had become mainstream in the U.S., the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project reported that more than a quarter of adult cell phone owners felt their cell phone had at some point compromised their driving ability. In the survey, 28% admitted they sometimes did not drive as safely as they should while using their mobile devices.¹

Over time, cell phones have become increasingly important fixtures in Americans’ lives and public concern over their use while driving has grown.² At the time of the 2006 survey, just 35% of adult cell phone owners said they used the text messaging feature on their phones. By April 2009, the use of text messaging by cell phone owners had nearly doubled to 65%.³

Several states including California, Connecticut and Oregon have already passed laws to ban all texting or talking with a handheld phone while driving, and the Senate is now considering a bill that would provide federal funding to states that enact similar laws.⁴ In September 2009 U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood convened policy makers, safety advocates, law enforcement representatives and academics to address the risk of text-messaging and other “distracted driving” behavior.  At the conclusion of the summit, Secretary LaHood announced an executive order from President Obama that forbids federal workers from texting while driving government vehicles or their own vehicles while on the job.⁵

According to the latest research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2008 alone, there were 5,870 fatalities and an estimated 515,000 people were injured in police-reported crashes in which at least one form of driver distraction was reported. Distractions among young drivers are of particular concern, as the highest incidence of distracted driving occurs in the under-20 age group.⁶

New research released in July 2009 by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) examines a variety of tasks that draw drivers’ eyes away from the roadway and suggests that text messaging on a cell phone is associated with the highest risk among all cell phone-related tasks observed among drivers.⁷ The VTTI has also noted that teen drivers are generally at a much higher crash risk when compared to other drivers, but there is a gap in understanding to what extent specific behaviors and relative lack of driving experience may contribute to this elevated risk.  An 18-month study of newly-licensed teen drivers is currently underway to further examine these factors.⁸

Research conducted at the University of Utah’s Applied Cognition Laboratory over the past decade further problematizes cell phone use in the car and suggests that talking on a cell phone while driving impairs driving ability in ways that conversing with a person in the car does not.⁹ For more information on the body of research around distracted driving, please see the Resources section at the end of this report.

Teens who text and talk while driving

Over the summer of 2009, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project conducted a survey of 800 teens ages 12-17 asking about their experiences with cell phone use in cars.  All of the teens in our survey were asked about their experiences as passengers, and if they were 16 or older and have a cell phone, they were also asked about their own actions behind the wheel. Additionally, the Project and the University of Michigan conducted 9 focus groups with teens ages 12-18 between June and October 2009 where the topic of driving and mobile phones was addressed.

Fully 75% of all American teens ages 12-17 now own a cell phone, and 66% use their phones to send or receive text messages. Older teens are more likely than younger teens to have cell phones and use text messaging; 82% of teens ages 16-17 have a cell phone and 76% text.

Overall, 34% of teen texters ages 16-17 say they have texted while driving. That translates into 26% of all American teens ages 16-17.

Boys and girls are equally likely to report texting behind the wheel; 34% of each group say they have used text messaging while driving.

At the same time, texting at the wheel is less common than having a conversation on the phone while driving. Looking at teens ages 16-17 who have a cell phone, 52% say they have talked on a cell phone while driving. That translates into 43% of all American teens ages 16-17.

However, it is important to note that some of these teens may use hands-free devices or a speakerphone function with their cell phones. This survey did not include questions to differentiate between conversations with handheld phones and those that took place with the assistance of a hands-free device or phone feature.

Indeed, in focus groups and written surveys conducted in partnership with the University of Michigan, some teens told us that they draw a line between conversations and texting, while others expressed concern over any activity that takes the driver’s eyes off the road. One middle school-aged girl wrote: “I’m very concerned because to me it’s not too safe to drive and text or talk (…) because you’re looking down in order to read it or text back.”

Likewise, one middle school-aged boy wrote: “I do worry about it because what if you’re driving and not paying attention to the road you can hit someone or make them hit you.”

One 9^th-10^th grade boy said, “People texting worries me more than people calling people, because texting is more distracting than talking on the phone because you can pay more attention to the road when talking than texting.”

The teens in our focus groups who said they texted while driving reported a variety of motivations for their behavior, including the need to report their whereabouts to friends and parents, getting directions and flirting with significant others. Teens also told of a variety of practices they use to try to increase safety while still maintaining the ability to text in the car. Some felt as though they could safely manage a quick exchange of texts while the car was stopped. One high school-aged boy shared that he would text “only at a stop sign or light but if it’s a call they have to wait or I’ll hand it to my brother or whoever is next to me.”

Others told of holding the phone up to keep their eyes simultaneously on the road and the phone. “I try not to, but at a red light, it’s a lot easier” said one high school boy. “And if I do text while I’m driving, I usually try to keep the phone up near the windshield, so if someone is braking in front of me or stops short, I’m not going to be looking down and hit them.”

Some teens explained other methods for handling calls or texts while on the road “Most of my friends give me their phones to text for them and read their texts, so the driver doesn’t do it themselves,” wrote one older high school girl.

“I think [texting]’s fine…And I wear sunglasses so the cops don’t see [my eyes looking down].”

[my eyes looking down]

Teens did make a distinction between reading text messages and sending them. “There’s a difference, I think,” said one older high school boy. “Because just reading a text isn’t that bad, it’s just reading and then moving on. If you’re texting, it’s going to take more time when you’re supposed to be driving, and that’s when most people get in accidents.”

[While]

Distracted drivers with teens as passengers

Among all teens ages 12-17, 48% say they have been in a car when the driver was texting.¹⁰ The older teens in our sample reported a higher  incidence of this experience; while 32% of teens ages 12-13 say they have been passengers in a car while the driver was texting at the wheel, 55% of those ages 14-17 report this. Looking only at those who are of driving age—16 and 17 year-olds—the rate jumps to 64%.

In a separate question, teens ages 12-17 were asked if they had been in a car when the driver used the cell phone in a way that put themselves or others in danger. Four in ten teens (40%) said they had been in a risky situation like this. Younger teens ages 12-13 are generally less likely to say they have been in a car with a driver who used a cell phone in a dangerous way; 34% report this, compared with 42% of those ages 14-17. Teens of driving age (16-17) are the most likely to report this experience; 48% have been a passenger in a car with a driver who used a cell phone in a risky way.

However, it is important to note that the survey question wording does not identify the age of the distracted driver. The teens who were interviewed in the phone survey could be reporting experiences as passengers with adult drivers or other teen drivers. Indeed, as noted above, in the focus group setting, many teens relayed accounts of their parents or other adult relatives texting and talking while driving. While this was cause for concern for some, others felt that their parents and others were “good drivers” who could manage their phones safely.

“[My dad] drives like he’s drunk. His phone is just like sitting right in front of his face, and he puts his knees on the bottom of the steering wheel and tries to text.”

[my dad]

The frequency of teens reporting parent cell phone use behind the wheel in our focus groups was striking, and suggested that, in many cases, texting while driving is a family affair. When one middle school-aged boy was asked how often he was in a moving vehicle when the driver sends a text message, he replied: “All the time. My mom, sister or brother will sit behind the wheel the whole time and just text away.” Similarly, a middle school girl told us: “My uncle will drive and text while he is driving – he will text no matter where he is.”

“I don’t really get worried because everyone does it. And when my mother is texting and driving I don’t really make a big deal because we joke around with her about it”

Other teen respondents referred to their parents’ use of the phone while driving as part of a larger societal norm. One middle school-aged girl wrote: “I don’t really get worried because everyone does it. And when my mother is texting and driving I don’t really make a big deal because we joke around with her about it (cuz she’s a crazy driver) but we don’t take it so serious.”

[as]

However, many of the teens we spoke with relayed experiences as passengers being driven by other young drivers. One young high school girl wrote about how often she’s a passenger with drivers who text: “Every time I leave to go somewhere with my brother or sister and my friends.  Every time!” Another high school age girl wrote: “My sister does it despite my mother’s warnings, so does my brother and my friends despite my warnings.”

Teen texters are more likely than non-texters to be a passenger of a distracted driver.

Teens ages 12-17 who use text messaging report a higher incidence of being passengers when the driver is texting or otherwise using the cell phone in a dangerous way. Among all teen texters, 58% say they have been in a car while the driver was texting. That compares with just 28% of non-texting teens. Similarly, 44% of texting teens say they have been in a car when the driver was using a cell phone in a way that put themselves or others in danger, while 31% of non-texting teens have had this experience.

Fully 73% of texting teens ages 16-17 have been in a car when the driver was texting.

Older texting teens ages 16-17 are even more likely to be in the company of drivers who use their cell phones while at the wheel. Fully 73% of texting teens ages 16-17 have been in a car when the driver was texting. Half (52%) say they have been in a car when the driver used a cell phone in a dangerous way.

“I’ll snatch the phone out of your hands – don’t be driving in the car with me and doing that . . . I want to live until the end of this car ride.”

Teens in our focus groups had a variety of responses to these situations – some were adamant and angry about being endangered.  One high school boy was asked about riding with drivers who text: “Not if they know what’s good for them. I’ll snatch the phone out of your hands – don’t be driving in the car with me and doing that…I want to live until the end of this car ride.”

Others were less concerned: “It doesn’t really bother me,” wrote one high school boy, “I’ve made and received calls almost every time I’ve driven.”  Another high school boy wrote: “I worry about if they can do it. If they know what they’re doing and looking up every second. I usually watch the road when it happens and tell them if they’re going off the road or something. I don’t really care though.”

Resources

Below are links to research groups cited in this document as well as other sites that present more exhaustive looks at relevant research and resources on distracted driving.

• The National Safety Council has produced a recent list of relevant research at http://www.nsc.org/safety_road/Distracted_Driving/Pages/KeyResearch.aspx#cognitive. 
• University of Utah’s Applied Cognition Laboratory’s website lists all their relevant research since 2001. http://www.psych.utah.edu/AppliedCognitionLab/
• Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s Center for Automotive Safety Research is conducting a safety study of newly licensed teen drivers. http://www.vtti.vt.edu/casr.html
• A listing of resources, rants and research around distracted driving from NPR and Car Talk. http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/Distraction/
• Clearinghouse for state-based laws around distracted driving as well as education and awareness-raising materials around texting and driving.  http://txtresponsibly.org/

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Rich Ling of Telenor and Scott Campbell of the University of Michigan, our partners on this project for their hard work and insights. Thanks, too, to Helen Ho, Elliot Panek, Nat Poor and Kathryn Zickuhr for their work on the focus groups and graphics in this report.

About the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project

The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project is one of seven projects that make up the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit “fact tank” that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. The Project produces reports exploring the impact of the internet on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life. The Project aims to be an authoritative source on the evolution of the internet through surveys that examine how Americans use the internet and how their activities affect their lives.

The Pew Internet Project takes no positions on policy issues related to the internet or other communications technologies. It does not endorse technologies, industry sectors, companies, nonprofit organizations, or individuals.

Methodology

This report is based on the findings of a telephone survey on teens’ and parents’ use of mobile phones and 9 focus groups conducted in 4 U.S. cities between June and October 2009 with teens between the ages of 12 and 18. The quantitative results in this report are based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research International between June 26 and September 24, 2009, among a sample of 800 teens ages 12-17 and a parent or guardian.  For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points for the complete set of weighted data.  In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting telephone surveys may introduce some error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.

A combination of landline and cellular random digit dial (RDD) samples was used to represent all teens and their parents in the continental United States who have access to either a landline or cellular telephone. Both samples were provided by Survey Sampling International, LLC (SSI) according to PSRAI specifications.

Numbers for the landline sample were selected with probabilities in proportion to their share of listed telephone households from active blocks (area code + exchange + two-digit block number) that contained three or more residential directory listings. The cellular sample was not list-assisted, but was drawn through a systematic sampling from dedicated wireless 100-blocks and shared service 100-blocks with no directory-listed landline numbers.

Interviews were conducted from June 26 to September 24, 2009. As many as 7 attempts were made to contact and interview a parent at every sampled telephone number. After the parent interview, an additional 7 calls were made to interview an eligible teen. Sample was released for interviewing in replicates, which are representative subsamples of the larger sample. Using replicates to control the release of sample ensures that complete call procedures are followed for the entire sample. Calls were staggered over times of day and days of the week to maximize the chance of making contact with potential respondents. Each telephone number received at least one daytime call in an attempt to find someone at home.

Contact procedures were slightly different for the landline and cell samples. For the landline sample, interviewers first determined if the household had any 12 to 17 year-old residents. Households with no teens were screened-out as ineligible. In eligible households, interviewers first conducted a short parent interview with either the father/male guardian or mother/female guardian. The short parent interview asked some basic household demographic questions as well as questions about a particular teen in the household (selected at random if more than one teen lived in the house.)

For the cell phone sample, interviews first made sure that respondents were in a safe place to talk and that they were speaking with an adult. Calls made to minors were screened-out as ineligible. If the person was not in a safe place to talk a callback was scheduled. Interviewers then asked if any 12 to 17 year olds lived in their household. Cases where no teens lived in the household were screened-out as ineligible. If there was an age-eligible teen in the household, the interviewers asked if the person on the cell phone was a parent of the child. Those who were parents went on to complete the parent interview. Thos who were not parents were screened-out as ineligible.

For both samples, after the parent interview was complete an interview was completed with the target child. Data was kept only if the child interview was completed.

Weighting is generally used in survey analysis to compensate for patterns of nonresponse that might bias results. The interviewed sample was weighted to match national parameters for both parent and child demographics. The parent demographics used for weighting were: sex; age; education; race; Hispanic origin; and region (U.S. Census definitions). The child demographics used for weighting were gender and age. These parameters came from a special analysis of the Census Bureau’s 2008 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) that included all households in the continental United States.

Weighting was accomplished using Sample Balancing, a special iterative sample weighting program that simultaneously balances the distributions of all variables using a statistical technique called the Deming Algorithm. Weights were trimmed to prevent individual interviews from having too much influence on the final results. The use of these weights in statistical analysis ensures that the demographic characteristics of the sample closely approximate the demographic characteristics of the national population. Table 1 compares weighted and unweighted sample distributions to population parameters.

Table 2 (below) reports the disposition of all sampled callback telephone numbers ever dialed. The response rate estimates the fraction of all eligible respondents in the sample that were ultimately interviewed. At PSRAI it is calculated by taking the product of three component rates:¹¹

• Contact rate – the proportion of working numbers where a request for interview was made¹²
• Cooperation rate – the proportion of contacted numbers where a consent for interview was at least initially obtained, versus those refused
• Completion rate – the proportion of initially cooperating and eligible interviews that agreed to the child interview and were completed

Thus the response rate for landline sample was 14 percent and the response rate for the cell sample was 11 percent.

The qualitative data comes from focus groups conducted by the University of Michigan and the Pew Internet & American Life Project. A total of 9 focus groups conducted in 4 cities between June and October 2009 with teens between the ages of 12 and 18. Three of the groups were co-ed and 6 were single sex – 3 groups with each sex. Three of the groups were with middle schoolers and 6 were with high school-aged students. Every effort was made to secure a diverse group of participants, with a balance of teens from different racial and ethnic backgrounds and socio-economic levels. All teens who participated in the focus groups had a cellular phone. Participants were offered a cash incentive for participation.

Each focus group lasted approximately 90 minutes, and included an individually administered paper questionnaire with additional questions that was completed during the 90 minute session. Recruitment for the focus groups was done by Resolution Research LLC of Denver, Colorado. Focus groups were moderated by Amanda Lenhart of Pew Internet and Scott Campbell of the University of Michigan, usually in teams of two, with one lead moderator and one secondary moderator. University of Michigan graduate students also attended the focus groups.

Parent/Teen Cell Phone Survey 2009 Final Revised Topline 10/1/09

Data for June 26 – September 24, 2009

Princeton Survey Research Associates International  for the Pew Internet & American Life Project 

Sample: n= 800 parents of 12-17 year olds (555 parent landline interviews and 245 parent cell phone interviews)
800 teens ages 12-17

Interviewing dates: 06.26.09 – 09.24.09

• Margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points for results based on total parents [n=800]
• Margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points for results based on total teens [n=800]
• Margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points for results based on teen internet users [n=746]
• Margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points for results based on teen cell phone users [n=625]
• Margin of error is plus or minus 5 percentage points for results based on teens who text [n=552]

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