Young drivers’ engagement with social interactive technology on their smartphone: Critical beliefs to target in public education messages

•Validates beliefs about social interactive technology use on smartphones.•Identifies critical beliefs as potential targets for public education messages.•Different beliefs identified for monitoring/reading and responding behaviours.•Utilises the SatMDT framework to develop public education message content.

The current study forms part of a larger study based on the Step Approach to Message Design and Testing (SatMDT), a new and innovative framework designed to guide the development and evaluation of health communication messages, including road safety messages. This four step framework is based on several theories, including the Theory of Planned Behaviour. The current study followed steps one and two of the SatMDT framework and utilised a quantitative survey to validate salient beliefs (behavioural, normative, and control) about initiating, monitoring/reading, and responding to social interactive technology on smartphones by N = 114 (88 F, 26 M) young drivers aged 17–25 years. These beliefs had been elicited in a prior in-depth qualitative study. A subsequent critical beliefs analysis identified seven beliefs as potential targets for public education messages, including, ‘slow-moving traffic’ (control belief − facilitator) for both monitoring/reading and responding behaviours; ‘feeling at ease that you had received an expected communication’ (behavioural belief −advantage) for monitoring/reading behaviour; and ‘friends/peers more likely to approve’ (normative belief) for responding behaviour. Potential message content targeting these seven critical beliefs is discussed in accordance with the SatMDT.