Personality of young drivers in Oman: Relationship to risky driving behaviors and crash involvement among Sultan Qaboos University students

Al Azri, Mohammed; Al Reesi, Hamed; Al-Adawi, Samir; Al Maniri, Abdullah; Freeman, James · 2017 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1080/15389588.2016.1235269

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Summary

This study investigates the relationship between personality traits, risky driving behaviors, and crash involvement among young Omani drivers, addressing a gap in research regarding psychological factors in Arab populations. Motivated by high road traffic crash rates in Oman and the overrepresentation of young drivers in accidents, the researchers aimed to determine if traits measured by the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) and Behavioral Activation System (BAS) predict aberrant driving and crash history. The researchers conducted a cross-sectional survey at Sultan Qaboos University, targeting licensed undergraduate students. A total of 529 participants (84.1% male, 15.9% female, average age 21) completed a self-reported questionnaire. The instrument included the Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ) to assess violations and errors, and the BIS/BAS scale to measure personality traits. Statistical analyses included exploratory factor analysis to validate the Arabic version of the BIS/BAS scale, Pearson correlations for bivariate relationships, and multiple regression and logistic regression models to adjust for socio-demographic characteristics. The factor analysis revealed a five-factor structure for the BIS/BAS scale, with BAS subdivided into reward responsiveness, drive, and fun-seeking, and BIS into anxiety and fear. Results indicated that young drivers with lower BIS-anxiety scores and higher BAS-fun seeking tendencies were more likely to report driving violations. Significant gender differences were observed: males reported higher levels of violations, errors, and BIS-fear, while females reported higher levels of BIS-anxiety, BAS-reward responsiveness, and BAS-drive. Although 44.8% of participants reported crash involvement, and bivariate analysis showed associations between crashes and both violations and errors, multivariate logistic regression revealed that neither personality traits nor driving behaviors significantly predicted crash involvement. The only significant predictor of crash involvement was driving experience, with longer licensing duration correlating with higher crash risk. The study concludes that while personality traits influence self-reported driving styles and differ by gender, they do not directly predict crash involvement in this population. The findings suggest that the link between personality and crashes may be indirect, mediated by risk perception and behavior, or obscured by the complexity of crash causality. The authors highlight the need for further cross-cultural validation of psychological scales and suggest that future interventions should focus on identifying individuals with high-risk personality traits to mitigate adverse traffic outcomes.

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Topics

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• sex gender
• sensation seeking
• personality driving
• cultural cross national
• novice drivers
• risk taking

Information type

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• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes, observational prevalence
• Theoretical Contribution: theory or model