Personality Traits and Attitudes Toward Traffic Safety Predict Risky Behavior Across Young, Adult, and Older Drivers

Abstract

In the last few decades, several studies have investigated the role of personality traits and attitudes toward traffic safety in predicting driving behaviors in diverse types of drivers across several countries. However, to the best of our knowledge, no studies so far have investigated the possible moderating role played by age in relation to predictors of accident risk. Answering this open question would provide information about the generalizability of the model across different subpopulations and would make possible the tailoring of the interventions to specific target groups. The study involved 1,286 drivers from three different age groups (young: n = 435; adult: n = 412; old: n = 439) which completed a questionnaire measuring drivers’ personality traits (i.e., anxiety, hostility, excitement seeking, altruism, normlessness), positive attitudes toward traffic safety, risky driving behaviors (i.e., errors, lapses, and traffic violations), accident involvement and number of traffic fines issued in the last 12 months. Multi-group Variance Based Structural Equation Modeling (VB-SEM) across the three age groups showed that the hypothesized model had a good fit with the data in all the three age groups. However, some pattern of relationships between the variables varied across the three groups, for example, if considering the direct effects of personality traits on risky driving behaviors, anxiety, altruism, and normlessness predicted violations only in young and adult drivers, whereas excitement seeking was associated with lapses only in young drivers; anxiety was a positive predictor of drivers’ errors, both in adult and older drivers, whereas excitement seeking predicted errors in adult and young drivers. On the other hand, attitudes significantly and negatively predicted violations and errors in all the three age groups, whereas they significantly and negatively predicted lapses only in young and older drivers. The results of the present study provided empirical basis to develop evidence-based road safety interventions differently tailored to the specific life’s stage of the drivers.

Personality traits and risky behavior among motorcyclists: An exploratory study

“…In general, it is agreed in the literature that risk behaviors in various social contexts also impact health risks. Studies have shown that personality traits and attitudes towards traffic safety predict dangerous driving behaviors and involvement in accidents [3,7,14,24, 25, 30]. However, this association has not been well investigated among motorcyclists using the psychobiological model of temperament and character.…”

“…Lucidi and colleagues [24] studied drivers´ behaviors considering three different age groups (young: n = 435; adult: n = 412; old: n = 439) in association with personality aspects. The results showed that risk driving was associated with personality traits and anxiety in young and adult drivers, while the search for sensations was associated with risky driving only in young drivers.…”

Effect of poor road network and maintenance on safety and security in Delta State Nigeria: Mixed perceptions in industrialized oil-producing community

“…At the international level, it is common knowledge that drivers violate traffic rules [11][12][13]. What this report is model-based emphasis that perspectives of the road users determine the associated OHS behavior [11][12][13]; and can be used as predicting factor [14]. Given that knowledge is power, it implies that there is need to empower the people.…”

School-Based Mind–Body Interventions: A Research Review

“…Crucial developmental transitions, such as physical growth and cognitive, language, and moral development, take place during childhood and adolescence. Over this time, individuals have to solve problems and find opportunities related to schooling and personal life (Alivernini et al 2019;Duprey et al 2018;Girelli et al 2019Girelli et al , 2020Lucidi et al 2019). In doing so, they develop behaviors that will probably last over the entire course of their lives.…”