Proposal and validation of a questionnaire to investigate risk behavior of drivers from Brazil and Portugal
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Summary
This paper addresses the critical issue of traffic accidents, which are a leading cause of global mortality, with human factors identified as the primary determinant. The authors aim to develop and validate a comprehensive questionnaire to investigate driver risk behaviors in Brazil and Portugal, specifically examining the influence of personality traits (anger and sensation seeking) and road environment perceptions. The study is motivated by the need for culturally adapted instruments that can accurately measure these variables to support future discrete modeling of risk behavior. The methodology involved a multi-stage process beginning with a literature review and semi-structured interviews with three high-risk drivers to identify key behavioral themes. The questionnaire was constructed by integrating three established, validated instruments: the Sensation Seeking scale, the Driver Anger Scale (DAS), and the Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ). These were translated and adapted into Portuguese for both Brazilian and Portuguese contexts, with Likert scales standardized to five points. New items were added to assess sociodemographic profiles, driving experience, and familiarity with specific road environments using visual aids. Validation was conducted through two pilot tests, each involving 12 participants from Brazil and Portugal. The researchers evaluated question comprehension via participant feedback and assessed scale reliability using Cronbach’s alpha and sensitivity analysis through descriptive statistics. The pilot tests yielded significant results regarding the instrument's reliability and clarity. The Driver Anger Scale demonstrated high reliability in both tests, with Cronbach’s alpha values of 0.805 and 0.866. The newly developed scales for behavior frequency and risk perception also showed strong reliability, with alpha values exceeding 0.79 and 0.92, respectively. However, the DBQ required substantial refinement; initial results for ordinary violations were negative (-0.40), but after modifying 13 of the 20 items based on reviewer feedback and cultural nuances (such as adjusting alcohol-related questions to reflect Brazilian law), the second pilot test achieved an alpha of 0.704 for ordinary violations and 0.845 for the DBQ overall. Sensation Seeking scores showed lower reliability in the second test, attributed to sample characteristics. Participant feedback led to further adjustments, including replacing technical terms like "Bluetooth" with "hands-free" and clarifying road environment images. The study concludes that the revised questionnaire meets the necessary criteria for sensitivity and reliability, making it suitable for application to a larger final sample. The authors emphasize that while statistical validation is crucial, qualitative analysis of participant interpretation is equally important for ensuring construct validity. Future work will involve applying the instrument to a broader population and using Principal Components Analysis to confirm the underlying dimensions of the constructs. This validated tool provides a robust foundation for analyzing the complex interplay between personality, environment, and risk-taking in driving behavior across different cultural contexts.
Key finding
The developed questionnaire demonstrated satisfactory reliability and sensitivity after iterative refinement through two pilot tests, confirming its suitability for investigating driver risk behavior in Brazil and Portugal.
Methodology
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Sample size: 24
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via author_sweep_intake on 2026-05-28.
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | author_sweep | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-28 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-06 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-07 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-07 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-07 |
| enrich | skipped | — | — | — | 4 | 2026-07-02 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 15 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | partial | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified_with_issues.
Topics
Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.
- dbq psychometrics
- human error taxonomy
- sensation seeking
- risk taking
- induced exposure
- cultural cross national
Information type
What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).
- Empirical Findings: observational prevalence, self report data
- Methodological Resource: validation psychometrics