Self-Efficacy, Planning, and Drink Driving: Applying the Health Action Process Approach

Objective: This study examines the constructs from the health action process approach (HAPA) theoretical model (Schwarzer, 1992) on future drink driving avoidance by first time drink driving offenders. This research presents an advance in health related theory by the novel application of the health model to predict risk avoidance. Method: Baseline interviews were conducted with 198 first time drink driving offenders at the time of court appearance, and offenders were followed up 6-8 months following the offense date. The key outcome variables used in 3 stages were behavioral expectation, planning, and self-reported avoidance of drink driving at follow-up. Results: Bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted for each stage. High task self-efficacy and female gender were significantly related to having no behavioral expectation of future drink driving. High maintenance self-efficacy was significantly related to high levels of planning to avoid future drink driving. Those with higher planning scores at baseline had significantly higher odds of reporting that they had avoided drink driving at follow up. Conclusion: Planning plays an important role in drink driving rehabilitation and should be a focus of early intervention programs aimed at reducing drink driving recidivism following a first offense. Self-efficacy is an important construct to consider for the behavior and could strengthen a planning focused intervention.