01664153

Component

Previous research on driving avoidance/self-regulation suggests that higher levels of executive functioning is related to better driving abilities, less risky driving behavior, and better decisions made while driving (Anstey, Wood, Lord, & Walker, 2005; Daigneault, Joly, & Frigon, 2002; Starkey & Isler, 2016). There is also research showing that driving attitudes become riskier as experience increases and that young female drivers tend to engage in more driving self-regulation behaviors than males (Gwyther & Holland, 2012; Rowe, Maughan, Gregory, & Eley, 2013). To date, these two lines of research have not been integrated. The goal of the current project was to investigate the associations among executive function, gender, driving experience, and exposure on driving avoidance behavior in young adults. Participants included 131 fully licensed drivers under 21 years of age (51.9% male). The authors measured executive functioning using the Behavioral Rating Index (BRI) and the Metacognition Index (MI) of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) (Giola, Isquith, Guy, & Kenworthy, 2000). Time licensed and exposure were measured using self-reported months since licensure and number of days driven per week, respectively. The authors used nine items from the Driving Habits Questionnaire (DHQ) to measure driving avoidance in nine scenarios: night, left turns onto oncoming traffic, bad weather, high traffic roads, unfamiliar areas, rush hour, high-speed interstates, driving alone, passing up opportunities because of concerns about driving (Owsley, Wells, & Sloane, 1999). Independent samples non-parametric tests were used to compare male and female drivers on each of the driving avoidance variables. Nine hierarchical linear regressions were conducted to examine individual differences in executive function, gender, time licensed, and driving exposure on the nine avoidance items in separate models. The BRIEF BRI and MI raw scores were entered in block 1, gender in block 2, practical experience in block 3, and exposure in block 4. Female drivers showed greater night driving avoidance and unfamiliar area avoidance than male drivers. Exposure (ß= -.258, p=.01) was a significant predictor of night driving avoidance in which greater driving exposure was associated with less night driving avoidance. The model as a whole explained 11.7% of the variability in night driving avoidance with exposure explaining 5.5% of the variance. Females are more likely than males to avoid driving in 2 of the 9 avoidance behaviors (Bad Weather ß= -.406, p=.00, Unfamiliar Areas ß= -.32, p=.01). As a whole, the models for these behaviors explained 19.4% of the variance in bad weather avoidance and 11.5% of the variability in unfamiliar area avoidance. Gender explained 15.9% and 9.9% of the variance, in each of these models respectively. Drivers who were licensed longer were less likely to avoid driving in rush hour (ß= -.203, p=.04). The authors saw gender differences in avoiding driving at night and in unfamiliar areas. The study also found that factors associated with driving avoidance varied by driving scenario for young drivers. This is in contrast to research with older drivers, which suggests a more general pattern of driving avoidance. Future research could investigate the specific processes related to deciding where and when to drive and how avoidance might be associated with motor vehicle crashes. This line of investigation can be used to improve young drivers’ ability to properly self-assess their driving ability with emerging task demands.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB30 Standing Committee on Operator Education and Regulation.

18-05312

English

4p

2018

Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

References; Tables

Behavior; Cognition; Decision making; Driver performance; Females; Males; Teenage drivers; Young adults

Highways; Safety and Human Factors

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2018 Paper #18-05312

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 8 2018 11:20AM