The Relationship between Fatigue in Mothers and the Age of Their Less-Than-24-Month-Old Newborns
The birth of a child marks the beginning of a new developmental period for the parents. These changes have positive but also negative aspects, such as the increase in fatigue experienced by mothers during this period of time, which can be very limiting and lead them to postpone other life or work goals. However, despite the widespread nature of this problem, there is a lack of information about the duration of this fatigue, with estimates ranging from three months to six years
Proposal of geographic information systems methodology for quality control procedures of data obtained in naturalistic driving studies
The primary goal of naturalistic driving studies is to provide a comprehensive observation of the driver's behaviour under real-life conditions by measureing a great number of parameters at high temporal frequencies. Achieving this goal, however, is a complex endeavor that faces many challenges such as the complexity of the vehicle instrumentation during the phase of data collection, and the difficult handling of large data volumes during the phase of data analysis. These drawbacks often cause episodes of data losses. Improving the technical aspects of the collection of naturalistic data is of paramount importance to increase the return of the investment made in it. An aspect to consider is…
Chronic, but not acute, fatigue predicts self-reported attentional driving errors in mothers attending infant children
AbstractMothers attending infant children usually experience high levels of fatigue, and fatigue has been shown to be related to car crashes through attentional errors, among other causes. The current study investigates the effects of fatigue on the attentional errors while driving of women attending infant children. A sample of 112 women—67 attending infant children and 45 not attending—filled out self-report questionnaires assessing acute fatigue, chronic fatigue, and attention-related driving errors. A mediational analysis showed that women attending infant children had higher levels of fatigue, and that chronic fatigue, but not acute fatigue, was related to attentional errors while driv…
Keep calm, pay attention, and carry on: Anxiety and consciousness mediate the effect of, mindfulness on driving performance in young drivers
Abstract Road traffic crashes are currently one of the main causes of deaths in the world and many efforts have been made to develop effective interventions to reduce them. Mindfulness has risen as a method for improving mental and physical well-being and has been hypothesized as potentially beneficial for driving performance. This has led to some commercial ventures based on such hypothesis, despite that the empirical evidence backing up them is still limited. Besides, at the moment there is not yet a clear account of the specific mechanism underlying this proposals. So, it seems plausible that the relationship between mindfulness and driving performance is indirect, and that personality t…
Conspiracy Beliefs Are Related to the Use of Smartphones behind the Wheel
The belief in conspiracy theories predicts behaviors related to public health such as the willingness to receive vaccines. This study applies a similar approach to an aspect of road safety: the use of smartphones while driving. A representative sample of 1706 subjects answered a series of questions related to what can be regarded as erroneous or conspiracy beliefs against restricting or banning the use of smartphones while driving. The results show that those having such conspiracy beliefs reported a greater use of smartphones behind the wheel.
Abiding by the law when it does not exist: The case of the helmet bicycle law
To improve the safety of bicycle users, some countries have enacted, or considered enacting, mandatory helmet legislation. Of course, the enactment of such legislation in a country assumes that its citizens will be well-informed of it, and consequently, will use the helmet more frequently than before. However, in the survey described in this paper we found that many people are not aware of the legislation in force in their own country, or, even if they know, they may not necessarily behave as dictated by the law. Thus, the effects of mandatory helmet legislation may be somewhat different than desired or expected. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to ascertain the role of cyclists' knowle…
Development of a Roadmap for the Implementation of a Sustainable Mobility Action Plan in University Campuses of Emerging Countries
Universities are centers of knowledge and their Campuses are like small cities, thus making them the ideal place to develop, apply and evaluate policies and tools for innovative mobility solutions that can subsequently be extended to other contexts. A review of mobility measures in different European Universities has revealed that many of them apply policies to promote sustainable mobility, but there is a significant lack of standardized mobility plans and roadmaps for their successful implementation. The objective of the present work is to develop a successful roadmap, which is necessary for the smooth implementation of a mobility plan, as it has been found through a thorough review of goo…
The Relationship Between a Baby's Age and Sleepiness in a Sample of Mothers
One question of great practical importance for the parents, and especially the mother, after the birth of a baby, refers to how long the time during which they have to go with less and more fragmented sleep actually lasts. Most of the studies only explore this issue up to 6 months of the newborn's life, and less is known about the sleep problems the mothers may have after this initial period. The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between the sleep disruption and daytime sleepiness of mothers with infants until 2 years old compared to a group of women currently not at care of babies. To this end, a sample of 113 women, 67 currently bringing up a baby of under 2 years old…