In Australia, young drivers aged 17-24 years, and particularly males, have the highest risk of being involved in a fatal crash. Investigation of young drivers' beliefs allows for a greater understanding of their involvement in risky behaviours, such as speeding, as beliefs are associated with intentions, the antecedent to behaviour. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was used to conceptualise beliefs using a scenario based questionnaire distributed to licenced drivers (N=398). The questionnaire measured individual's beliefs and intentions to speed in a particular situation. Consistent with a TPB-based approach, the beliefs of those with low intentions to speed ('low intenders') were compared with the beliefs of those with high intentions ('high intenders') with such comparisons conducted separately for males and females. Overall, significant differences in the beliefs held by low and high intenders and for both females and males were found. Specifically, for females, it was found that high intenders were significantly more likely to perceive advantages of speeding, less likely to perceive disadvantages, and more likely to be encouraged to speed on familiar and inappropriately signed roads than female low intenders. Females, however, did not differ in their perceptions of support from friends, with all females reporting some level of disapproval from most friends and all females (i.e., low and high intenders) reporting approval to speed from their male friends. The results for males revealed that high intenders were significantly more likely to speed on familiar and inappropriately signed roads as well as having greater perceptions of support from all friends, except from those friends with whom they worked. Low and high intending males did not differ in their perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of speeding, with the exception of feelings of excitement whereby high intenders reported speeding to be more exciting than low intenders. The findings are discussed in terms of how they may directly inform the content of mass media and public education campaigns aimed at encouraging young drivers to slow down.

Despite the availability of hundreds of treatment studies in the scientific literature, we know little about whether these treatments work in regular practice. We present an updated review of treatment effectiveness studies for psychological problems in children and adolescents. A literature search yielded 20 recent articles describing effectiveness studies for the treatment of anxiety disorders, depression, and disruptive behavior problems. We compared data from these effectiveness studies with two benchmarks reported in meta-analyses of efficacy trials: the numbers of clients who completed services and the improvements found in those who completed services. All studies of the treatment of internalizing disorders reported completion rates above 80%; the majority of parenting interventions for the treatment of disruptive behavior problems reported that more than 75% of parents who began services completed them. The improvement rates reported in effectiveness studies for internalizing problems were comparable to the benchmarks reported in efficacy studies. There was greater variability in the treatment of disruptive behavior problems, with several studies outperforming the benchmark, and a smaller number yielding poorer results. Practitioners should be encouraged to see promising results that suggest evidence-based treatments for child and adolescent disorders can be effective when used in typical clinical settings.

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We extended on previous work by examining the contextual nature of parenting goals in mothers and fathers of adolescents. We also examined dyadic parenting similarity in parenting responses and parenting goals. Participants were 285 primarily professional (48.6%), White (82.7%) parents of adolescents aged 14 to 17 years old (mothers n ¼ 213, fathers n ¼ 68, dyads n ¼ 43). Results of a 2 Â 2 Â 6 MANCOVA indicated that parenting goals were influenced by characteristics of the situation but not by parent or adolescent gender. There was dyadic parenting similarity for parenting responses and dyadic similarity for parenting goals. The implications of these findings for parenting interventions and future parenting research using within family comparisons are discussed.