A new study led by researchers at Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has revealed a striking gap between teens\u2019 desire to drive and their ability to obtain a license.<\/p>\n
According to the study, this is driven, not by lack of interest, but likely due to unequal community opportunity.<\/p>\n
The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics<\/a>, found that while most 15-year-olds across a range of communities intend to learn to drive, far fewer teens from low-opportunity neighborhoods ultimately obtain a license.<\/p>\n Researcher, Stephanie Mayne, PhD, first author and\u00a0Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Epidemiology with\u00a0Clinical Futures<\/a> and\u00a0PolicyLab<\/a> at CHOP, said the study found strong intention to drive across communities: at age 15, 80% of teens in \u201cvery low\u201d opportunity neighborhoods and 89% of teens in \u201cvery high\u201d opportunity areas planned to drive.<\/p>\n By age 17-18, only 31.6% of teens in low opportunity neighborhoods who intended to drive obtained a permit or license, compared to 91.1% of peers in high opportunity neighborhoods.<\/p>\n \u201cThese findings suggest that declines in teen licensure are not about a lack of motivation but rather are about barriers in getting a license,\u201d said Stephanie.<\/p>\n \u201cTeens across communities want to drive, but many are being left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n Researchers said the findings highlight an urgent need to address structural barriers, such as cost, access to practice vehicles, availability of supervising drivers, and awareness of training resources, that prevent teens from progressing from intention to licensure.<\/p>\n \u201cDriving should not be a privilege reserved for those with resources, it\u2019s a developmental milestone with implications for safety, independence, and long-term opportunity,\u201d she added. \u201cWhen teens delay licensure, they often forgo the structured, supervised learning that keeps new drivers safer.\u201d<\/p>\n CHOP has resources available to help parents and teens navigate the learning to drive process.\u00a0Teen Driving Plan<\/a> is CHOP\u2019s evidence-based program for supervised driving practice and can be found at\u00a0teendriversource.research.chop.edu<\/a>. CHOP primary care patients also receive educational materials on driving and can take the\u00a0virtual driving assessment<\/a> at their primary care practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new study led by researchers at Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has revealed a striking gap between teens\u2019 desire to drive and their ability to obtain a license. According to the study, this is driven, not by lack of interest, but likely due to unequal community opportunity. The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, found […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":15623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-safety-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15624,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15622\/revisions\/15624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}