Phone Use Among Young Drivers

Questions marked with a * are required

Human Research Ethics
Participant Information Statement and Consent
Anonymous surveys

Dr Cassandra Gauld
School of Psychological Sciences
The University of Newcastle
University Drive Callaghan NSW 2308
4055 3046
cass.gauld@newcastle.edu.au

Regarding Research Project: Smartphone use Among Young Drivers
Document version 4 dated [10/03/2025]

Dear potential research participant,
You are invited to participate in the research project noted above which is being conducted by researchers from the University of Newcastle.
This project has been funded by The Office of Road Safety in the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.
The information below provides more detail about the study and how you can participate if you choose to do so.

1. What is the research study about?
The purpose of the research is to increase our understanding of smartphone use among young drivers. The term 'Smartphone use while driving' refers to both hand-held and hands-free interactions with your smartphone and includes accessing your smartphone via car controls, Apple Car Play, Android Auto, or Bluetooth.

2. Who is conducting the research?
This research project is being conducted in collaboration with by researchers from the University of Newcastle’s School of Psychological Sciences, Queensland University of Technology’s School of Psychology and Counselling, and the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety.

3. Who can participate in the research?
This research is recruiting people who are young drivers aged 18 to 25 years old, live in Australia, who have a current driver licence, and own a smartphone.

4. What does participation involve?
If you agree to participate, you will be asked to complete three anonymous online surveys. The second survey will be sent to you 1 week after you complete the first survey, and the third survey will be sent to you 3 weeks after you complete the second survey. For the first survey, you will be randomly allocated to one of four groups. As such, you will either be asked to (1) write a brief statement about the merits of not using your smartphone while driving and answer questions about your own smartphone use while driving; (2) only answer questions about your own smartphone use while driving; (3) view an educational webpage, write a brief statement about the merits of not using your smartphone while driving, and answer questions about your own smartphone use while driving; or (4) view an educational webpage, and answer questions about your own smartphone use while driving;. You will also be asked some general questions about yourself (e.g., age, gender), and how you felt during the study. Depending on which group you are randomly allocated to, Survey 1 will take between 15 and 30 minutes. The second and third surveys will ask you about your smartphone use while driving behaviour in the previous week and will each take around 3 minutes to complete.
You may complete the survey using any computer or mobile phone that has internet access; however, each survey must be completed in one sitting. If you close the web browser and exit the survey, please be aware that your partial response may still be included in the data analyses. At the end of the third survey, you will be invited to enter a prize draw to win a $100 gift voucher.

5. Do you have to take part in this research study?
No. Participation in this research study is voluntary. If you do not want to take part, you do not have to. If you decide to participate and later change your mind, you are free to withdraw from the study at any time prior to submitting your completed survey. Due to the anonymous nature of the survey, if you decide to withdraw from the project after submitting a completed survey, we cannot withdraw your responses.
What is the benefit of participating in this research study? By participating in this survey, you will have the opportunity to increase our understanding of smartphone use among young drivers which may be used in the future to develop interventions that are of benefit to all road users by potentially reducing road toll.
Are there any risks involved in participating in this research? It is not anticipated that the survey contains any major risks or discomforts beyond everyday living. Participants in the intervention condition will be asked whether they use their smartphone while driving; however, specific details will not be asked, and the survey data is anonymous and not re-identifiable. Nonetheless, if you feel that any part of the survey causes you any anxiety or emotional distress, you may contact Lifeline’s free national counselling service at 13 11 14, 13 YARN on 13 92 76, or BeyondBlue at 1300 224636.

6. How will your privacy be protected?
Due to the anonymous nature of the survey, the responses you provide will not be identifiable.
The surveys are anonymous, and it will not be possible to identify you from your answers. Your responses to the three surveys will be linked by a Unique Code Identifier that you will be asked to generate at the beginning of each survey. At the end of Survey 1, you will be invited to provide an email address to receive the second and third surveys. This email address will be collected on a separate page and will be stored in a separate file to your survey responses. In addition, for participants who leave their email address to receive a summary of the study’s findings, there is no way to link your email to your survey responses, should you choose to participate, as your email address will still be permanently deleted once your communication with the researcher is complete.
The information you provide will not be used for any other purpose other than that outlined in this study. Only the listed researchers will have access to the survey data and any publications resulting from this study will report de-identified, aggregate data only.
Data will be retained securely for a minimum period of 5 years from completion of the research and managed/stored in accordance with the University’s Research Data and Materials Management Guideline or any successor Guideline, and applicable University of Newcastle policy provisions (as amended from time to time).
The survey will be hosted by QuestionPro. The data will also be stored on their servers that are co-located in off-site data centres. These data centres undergo periodic audits and are monitored for unauthorized access and service availability twenty-four hours a day. More information on QuestionPro’s data privacy and security policy can be found here: QuestionPro-Security-Policy-Procedures.pdf

7. How will information collected by the research team be used?
The research results may be reported at professional conferences, in published articles in professional
Journals, and at community forums. Only aggregated data will be reported and, as such, individuals will not be personally identified in any of the reported results. Non-identifiable data may also be shared with other parties to encourage scientific scrutiny, and to contribute to further research and public knowledge, or as required by law. The data will be stored in a password protected file and will be destroyed after 5 years.
At the end of the third survey, you will be invited to leave your email address to receive a summary of the study’s findings. Your email address will be collected in a separate survey and there will be no way to link your email address with your survey responses.
Non-identifiable data may be shared with other parties as part of a peer-review process to verify the robustness and integrity of the study, or to contribute to further research and public knowledge.

8. What you need to do in order to participate
Read this Information Statement in its entirety and be sure you understand all of the information provided before you agree to participate.
If you would like to participate, please tick the box below which says you have read this information statement which appears below this information statement and proceed to the online survey.
If there is anything you do not understand, or if you have questions, contact Dr Cassandra Gauld on cass.gauld@newcastle.edu.au or (02) 4055 3046.
Completion and submission of the survey will be taken as your implied consent to participate.

9. Do you need more information?
If you would like more information about this research project, please contact Dr Cassandra Gauld at cass.gauld@newcastle.edu.au or (02) 4055 3046.
Thank you,

Dr Cassandra Gauld
Lecturer
The University of Newcastle

Concerns or complaints about this research
This project has been approved by The University of Newcastle’s Human Research Ethics Committee, Approval No. H-2024-0120.
If you have concerns about your rights as a participant in this research, or if you have a complaint about the manner in which the research is conducted, you can contact the Chief Investigator Dr Cassandra Gauld on cass.gauld@newcastle.edu.au or (02) 4055 3046.
If you would prefer to contact someone independent of the research project, you can forward your concerns to:
Human Research Ethics Officer
Research and Innovation Services
University of Newcastle
University Drive
Callaghan NSW 2308, Australia
Phone: (02) 4921 6333
Email: Human-Ethics@newcastle.edu.au

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