THE INFLUENCE OF RISK PERCEPTION AND SELF-ASSESSED DRIVING

ABILITIES ON THE BEHAVIOR OF YOUNG DRIVERS

PhD Dragan JvanovićPhD Predrag Stanojević

MSc Dragana Jakšić

Contents Introduction

Participants

Instruments

Key results

Discusssion and Conclusion

Introduction

Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for young people aged 15 to 29;

Young drivers are more frequently involved in traffic accidents compared to other age groups;

The researches point to three main problems: inexperience, age and gender.

IntroductionInexperienced in the driving task

Have problems with risk perception

They are high risktakers in their life-style

Often drive at high-risk conditions

They are susceptible to peer pressure

Consider themselves as “safe drivers”

Participants

Gender Male (%) 162 (63,5)Female (%) 93 (36,5)

Age Mean (S.D.) 19,65 (1,874)

Driving experience in months Mean (S.D.) 12,92 (8,16)

Mileage from licensingMean (S.D.) 7.234 (15.297)

Number of accidentsMean (S.D.) 0,42 (0,94)

Instruments

► Demographic variables

► Risk perception questionnaire

► Self-assessed driving ability questionnaire

► Behaviour of Young Novice Drivers Scale

Key results

Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1. Risk perception -

2. General driving ability -,11 -

3. Safety orientation ,06 ,61** -4. Body dimension ,02 ,67** ,61** -

5. Specific task skills -,04 ,55** ,42** ,63** -

6. Transient violations -,43** ,37** ,16** ,24** ,22** -7. Fixed violations -,29** ,29** ,09 ,21** ,20** ,70** -

8. Accidents -,01 ,33** ,14* ,21** ,19** ,21** ,16* -

Correlation between risk perception, self-assessed driving abilities, violations and accidents

Key resultsHierarchical regression analysis for dependent variable of traffic accident

Traffic accidentsPredictors ΔR2 βStep1 .112***

Gender -.160**

Mileage .266***

Step 2 .058**

Risk perception -.038General driving ability .313***

Safety orientation -.052Body dimension -.047Specific task skills .001

Total R2 .170***

Discussion and Conclusion

The obtained results partially confirm the

given hypothesis

► Young drivers with lower risk perception are

more prone to transient and fixed violations

► The influence of risk perception to traffic

accident has not been identified

Discussion and Conclusion

► The self-assessed abilities are associated to risk behavior of young drivers

► The results of regression analysis show that the only important predictor both at committing violations and traffic accidents was general driving ability

► The risk perception did not correlate with either dimension of self-assessed abilities

Discussion and Conclusion

► The researches have shown that advanced driving training and traffic safety campaigns can improve the risk and the application of these measures should be certainly considered

► When it comes to self-assessed abilities, education (theoretical courses) during the training can contribute to better understanding of relationship between the abilities of the young driver and driving task

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