Emotion behind the Wheel: Unravelling the Impact of Emotional (dys)Regulation on Young Driving Behaviour—A Systematic Review

Abstract

Young people engage in a variety of behaviours that can have an impact on their health and safety, including driving and road accidents, which represent a major health issue today. Emotions, and in particular emotional regulation (ER), interact significantly with key elements of driving behaviour, such as risk perception, decision-making, and attention. We carried out a systematic review considering the presence of an association between emotional (dys)regulation and driving behaviour of young adults (18–25 years). A total of 1849 records were selected for screening and, finally, eight full-text articles were included. Two main findings were found: on the one hand, driving anger, unlike other emotional patterns, emerged as a well-defined cause of impairment among young drivers. On the other hand, drivers’ risky behaviour seems to be influenced by a heterogeneous set of factors, such as using specific ER strategies or personality traits (e.g., impulsivity). Expressing one’s emotions adaptively, improving the ability to accept and be aware of negative emotions, and controlling impulsive behaviour could reduce driving risks in young drivers.

Investigating the Relationship Between Mood and Driver Behaviors

“…Second, the study sample is not representative. As stated earlier, the relationship between the variables is based on previous literature focusing on distal and proximal factors (Lajunen, 1997; Sümer, 2003) and the relationships between mood, emotion, and behavior (e.g., Bowen et al, 2020; Pizzo et al, 2024; Scott-Parker, 2017). However, the results are correlation-based retrospective findings, making it difficult to show a causal relationship.…”

“…However, after considering the relationship between the aforementioned distal and proximal factors (Lajunen, 1997; Sümer, 2003) and the link between the antecedent variables of driving anger and driver behaviors (Demir et al, 2016), we formulated the serial mediation model shown in Figure 1. In constructing the model, we followed the direction of the relationships between mood, emotion, and behavior (e.g., Bowen et al, 2020; Pizzo et al, 2024; Scott-Parker, 2017) and tested a relationship order from the most general (trait factor) to the most context-specific variable. This model suggests that general mood (measured with a trait affect measure) directly affects both perceived stress, driving anger, and driver behaviors.…”