Assessing Aggressive Driving: Comparing Four Self-Report Measures
2006; Volume: 8; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1527-7143
AutoresJohn M. Houston, Jennifer A. Johnson, Ashley N. Skinner, Monica V. Clayton,
Tópico(s)Crime, Deviance, and Social Control
ResumoAggressive driving is a serious social problem in the United States. This study investigated the relationship between four self-report measures of aggressive driving and examined the extent to which the measures predicted various driving outcomes, including traffic tickets, accidents, and near accidents. A total of 170 undergraduate students completed a survey packet containing demographic and driving history items as well as the four measures. The results indicated that all of the aggressive driving scales were significantly correlated; however, there was only limited evidence to indicate that the measures can predict certain types of driving outcomes. Aggressive driving represents one of the most serious social problems facing the United States. The National Highway Safety Administration (2005) reported that in 2003 speeding-related crashes were responsible for over 13,000 fatalities, with crashes resulting in an estimated cost of over $40.4 billion. Despite the importance of this issue, research on aggressive driving remains surprisingly fragmented and limited. Over the last decade researchers have developed several measures of aggressive driving; however, the relationship among these assessment instruments has not been systematically investigated. In this study, we examined the relationship between four self-report measures of aggressive driving and investigated the validity of these measures for predicting aggressive driving indicators such as traffic tickets, accidents, and near accidents. Although the measures investigated in this study were all designed to assess aggressive driving, each measure operationally defines this construct in a different way. The Driver's Stress Profile (Larson, 1996) and the Driving Anger Scale (Deffenbacher, Oetting, & Lynch, 1994) represent a clinical psychological perspective on aggressive driving and emphasize driver's emotional responses. Studies using these measures have focused on trait anger (Blanchard, Barton, & Malta, 2000; Ellison-Potter, Bell, & Deffenbacher, 2001) and treatment of high anger drivers (Deffenbacher, Huff, Lynch, Oetting, & Salvatore, 2000). The Driving Aggression Scale of the Driving Behaviour Inventory (Glendon, Dorn, Matthews, Gulian, Davies, & Debney, 1993) reflects a human factors perspective and has been used to examine driver stress, cognitions, and coping responses to driving environments (Mathews, Dorn, Hoyes, Davies, Glendon, & Taylor, 1998; Mathews, Tsuda, Xin, & Ozeki, 1999). Recently, Houston, Harris, and Norman (2003) developed the Aggressive Driving Behavior Scale to investigate patterns of unsafe driving behavior. This measure uses a behavioral approach avoiding inferences about the intent of driving behavior by assessing the reported frequency of specific driving behaviors without reference to possible emotional or motivational states. METHOD Participants A total of 170 undergraduates (101 females and 69 males) from a small liberal arts college in Florida participated in the study. To obtain a sample containing a broad range of ages and driving experience, students from a traditional arts and sciences program as well as a non-traditional evening degree program were included. The age of participants ranged from 18 to 60 and had a mean of 26.1 years (SD = 7.88). The mean driving experience was 9.1 years (SD = 7.63). Measures and Procedures All participants completed a sheet with demographic and driving history items and a survey packet containing four aggressive driving scales. Aggressive Driving Behavior Scale. The Aggressive Driving Behavior Scale (ADBS; Houston, Harris, & Norman, 2003) assesses the frequency in which individuals engaged in 11 unsafe driving practices over the past six months using a response scale with six options: never, almost never, sometimes, fairly often, very often, and always. The measure contains two factors (Conflict Behavior and Speeding) that form internally consistent subscales. …
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