Driver training interests of a Spanish sample of young drivers and its relationship with their self-assessment skills concerning risky driving behavior

6533b7d8fe1ef96bd126ad7a

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Driver training interests of a Spanish sample of young drivers and its relationship with their self-assessment skills concerning risky driving behavior

J. Gabriel Molina Esko Keskinen Jaime Sanmartín

subject

Self-assessment Risk analysis Male Engineering Automobile Driving Self-Assessment Adolescent Applied psychology Poison control Human Factors and Ergonomics Sample (statistics)Computer security computer.software_genre Suicide prevention Young Adult Risk-Taking Surveys and Questionnaires Injury prevention Humans Safety Risk Reliability and Quality ta515 business.industry Seguretat viària Public Health Environmental and Occupational Health Accidents Traffic Human factors and ergonomics Spain Female business computer Strengths and weaknesses

description

Abstract Poor driving self-assessment skills (e.g., over-confidence) have been pointed out as an important explanatory factor behind young drivers’ accident involvement. This paper explores (1) what young drivers miss in their training as drivers in order to analyze whether an assessment of one's own driving skills plays an important role in their desire to improve as drivers, and (2) how these training interests are related to an estimate of their self-assessment skills concerning risky driving behavior. For this purpose, a study was conducted using a survey with a blocked sampling design of novice drivers. The survey solicited respondents’ self-report about (1) the contents of training courses that they feel would improve their driving, (2) their risky driving behavior, and (3) their likelihood of being involved in a risky driving situation. From the initial sample invited to participate, of nearly 1300 people, we finally obtained complete data from 321 young Spanish drivers. Two main results were apparent from our data analysis: (1) the novice drivers were mainly interested in improving their ability to recognize their strengths and weaknesses as drivers (i.e., self-assessment skills); (2) a significant relationship was found between novice drivers’ interests and their current self-assessment skills concerning risky driving behavior. Specifically, there was greater general interest expressed in post-license training by the under-confident self-assessors than the over-confident ones. These results provide a relevant input which should be taken into account when designing driver training programs for novice drivers. Moreover, the relationship between their training interests and their risky driving self-assessment skills introduces an additional factor to be considered in the implementation of these training programs.

year	journal	country	edition	language
2013-01-01

http://hdl.handle.net/10550/30164