A theoretically informed investigation of young drivers' intentions to engage in hand-held phone use for video and text messaging in vehicles with and without ADAS

Smartphones now commonly support video messaging. This study extends upon previous research by assessing young drivers' aged 17–25 years intentions to watch a video message while driving and how this behaviour compared to reading a text message while driving. Specifically, this study applied an extended Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), with additional constructs of moral norms, descriptive norms, and anticipated regret, to examine young drivers' intentions to use a smartphone to perform these two behaviours while driving. Further, the study assessed if self-reported intentions to perform these two behaviours differed when driving a vehicle with and without advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in an urban or regional environment. A total of 229 Australian young licensed drivers ( M = 19.41 years, SD = 1.91 years, 78% female) completed a 20-min online questionnaire. Twenty-nine percent of participants reported sometimes to very often using a handheld smartphone to read a text message, while 4% of participants reported sometimes to very often using a handheld smartphone to watch a video message while driving. Two hierarchical multiple regressions assessed the extent to which the standard TPB constructs of attitudes, injunctive norms, and perceived behavioural control (PBC; Step 1), and moral norms, descriptive norms, and anticipated regret (Step 2) predicted intentions to use a handheld smartphone to (i) watch video messages and (ii) read text messages while driving. Attitudes, injunctive norms, PBC: efficacy, and moral norms were significant predictors of young drivers' intentions to both use a handheld smartphone to watch a video message and read a text message while driving. For reading a text message, descriptive norms was also a significant predictor of intentions. Paired t -tests showed that participants reported significantly higher intentions to use their smartphone to watch a video message and read a text message while driving when the vehicle featured lane keeping assist, autonomous emergency braking, and adaptive cruise control compared to when in the absence of ADAS. However, mean intentions ratings remained low across all conditions, suggesting that despite this significant result, self-reported intentions to use a smartphone while driving were low. These findings highlight that despite being an illegal behaviour, some young drivers still report using a handheld smartphone while driving. Therefore, more research is also required to examine the impact of vehicle technologies on driver distraction, particularly for the younger driving cohort. • Examines young drivers' intentions to use smartphone while driving. • Extends on past research by examining intentions to watch video messaging. • Reading a text message while driving more prevalent than watching a video message. • Higher intentions to use smartphone when vehicle featured ADAS compared to no ADAS. • Further research needed to examine impact of new technologies on driver distraction.