What Worries Parents About Their Teens Driving?

Most parents worry about the day their teen gets behind the wheel alone for the first time. There’s a world of risk out there on the road, from road rage to intoxicated drivers to deer and other dangers. Unfortunately, teenage drivers are involved in collisions at a rate four times as high as drivers over 20 years old per mile driven — so it’s reasonable to be concerned. 

What’s specifically worrying these parents, and what rules are they making to keep their kids safe? We surveyed 1,000 American parents of teenagers to find out. 

Key Findings

• Nearly 1 in 4 parents don’t trust their teen to drive safely.
• 56% of parents report losing sleep over their teens’ driving.
• The most common rules parents have for their teen drivers: no phone use while driving and calling to check in when they leave or arrive.
• 48% of parents implement a curfew for their teen drivers.
• 7 in 10 parents track their teen’s location, and 13% report that their teen has tried to disable this feature.

What do parents worry about most?

Being a parent comes with all kinds of unique anxieties, and that’s especially true for parents of newly-minted teen drivers. So what are parents most concerned about regarding the safety of their teens on the road?

Understandably, most parents’ biggest fear is their child getting into a car crash — and for 10% of respondents, that fear has unfortunately come true. 

Coming in second is a fear that their teens will use their phones while driving. That’s a reasonable worry, considering that, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, distracted driving (including phone use) claimed over 3,300 lives in 2022. 30% of respondents said phone use has been an issue for their teen drivers. Besides being incredibly risky, phone use while driving is also illegal: 36 states plus Washington, D.C. ban phone use by novice or teen drivers.

Trust and anxiety in parents of teen drivers

With all of that anxiety, it’s heartening to see that a substantial majority of parents still trust their children to drive safely. 77% of parents of daughters and 79% of parents of sons trusted their child to drive, while 76% and 83%, respectively, said their child was a good driver. However, that still means almost 1-in-4 to 1-in-5 parents don’t trust their child to drive safely. 

Even for parents who trust their kids to drive safely, the anxieties of parenting a teen driver are very real. A majority of parents reported increased anxiety and stress, while a significant number said they got less sleep since their teenager started driving. 

What rules have parents made for teen drivers?

Making rules that are fair but firm is one of the essential tasks of parenting. So what ground rules are American parents setting for their teen drivers? Here’s what we found:

The two most popular rules, tied at 55% of parents, were:

1. Prohibiting a teen driver from making calls while driving
2. Requiring check-ins when leaving and arriving at a destination

Number one is a critical safety issue for drivers of any age, which makes plenty of sense considering how dangerous it is to use a handheld phone while driving. As for the second, it can help parents feel more assured that they know where their teen driver is and can pinpoint where they might be if they can’t get in touch. Other popular rules include a curfew (48%) and a rule against driving in bad weather (42%).

For many parents, it’s also important that their teens see driving as a privilege, not a right. Almost one in five parents say they’ve restricted their child from driving for reasons unrelated to driving itself. In contrast, eight percent said they’ve restricted it only for reasons related to on-road behavior.

Tracking and technology

Today’s technology tools also give parents new ways to keep their kids safe on the road. We asked parents how many of them tracked their child’s location — whether they were driving or not — and here’s what they told us:

44% track their teenager’s location all the time, while 26% track it only while their teen is driving. And, because teenagers don’t always like having their whereabouts known, 13% said their teen has turned off location tracking before without their permission. (We imagine there were some conversations had afterward.)

Many parents also use other technologies to keep their teen drivers safe. Dash cameras were the most popular addition to teen drivers’ cars, with GPS coming in second. Some parents also reported using ignition interlock devices for their teenagers’ cars: devices that use a breath sample to verify that the driver hasn’t consumed alcohol before driving.

How much are parents paying for their teens?

Driving has never been cheap with car payments, maintenance, insurance, and other factors. Let’s look at what our study had to say about the cost of getting a teen driver on the road:

Only 6% of parents sprung for a new car for their teen driver, while a combined 58% either gave their teen a used car or a car they already owned. 27% chose the most frugal option: sharing a car with their teenager. On top of that, 56% said they paid for their child’s gas and 56% for car registration fees — although only 4% said they’d help their kid cover a speeding ticket.

The average parent spent a significant amount monthly on car-related expenses for their teen drivers. Start with an average monthly car payment of $332, and add an average of $113 to put gas in the tank. Then add $230 a month for car insurance, which is often higher than the average driver’s cost, thanks to the increased cost of insuring teen drivers. That adds up to an eye-watering average of $675 extra per month — so it’s no wonder that 2 in 5 parents said they required their child to get a job in order to drive.

Who’s the better driver?

A parental lecture about “how things were back in my day” is practically a rite of passage for teenagers. Here’s how parents of teenagers told us they felt about the differences between teen driving then and now:

Almost double the number of parents who said that teenagers were better drivers when they were young, and 16% more said that parents were stricter in their day. Moreover, 46% said that they were better drivers at their teen’s age than their teen is now. 

Is that based in reality, or is it just the age-old complaints about “kids these days”? The rate of traffic crash deaths in the US has plummeted by 38% in the past four decades, according to the NHTSA. Then again, 49% of Americans overall say driving has become less safe, with phone use cited as a significant issue — so it’s not just the parents of teens who are concerned about unsafe roads and distracted drivers.

Whether you just passed driver’s ed or you’ve been on the road for decades, staying safe on the road is paramount for you and your family. Smart Start’s ignition interlock devices help prevent drunk driving, as well as giving drivers with a DUI another chance to stay compliant and get their transportation back. 

Methodology

We surveyed 1,002 American parents of teens to determine their experiences with their teens driving. Among these parents, 35% were men, and 65% were women. Additionally, 8% were baby boomers, 53% were Gen X, 37% were millennials, and 2% were Gen Z. Finally, 23% had a daughter driving, 29% had a son, 6% had both, and 42% had neither teen driving.