Emotion behind the Wheel: Emotional (dys)Regulation on Young Driving Behaviour - Systematic Review
DOI: 10.3390/su16083384
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Summary
This systematic review investigates the relationship between emotional (dys)regulation and driving behavior in young adults aged 18–25, a demographic with disproportionately high road accident mortality rates. The study addresses the gap in understanding how specific emotional regulation strategies influence risk perception, decision-making, and attention in novice drivers. Motivated by evidence that human factors, particularly emotional states like anger and stress, contribute significantly to traffic accidents, the authors aimed to identify which regulation strategies are used during driving and whether adaptive or maladaptive strategies correlate with safer or riskier driving behaviors. The review followed the PRISMA guidelines and Arksey and O’Malley framework, screening 3,925 records from databases including PubMed, PsycINFO, and Scopus. After removing duplicates and applying strict inclusion criteria—focusing on young drivers and the presence of emotional regulation constructs—eight full-text articles were included for analysis. The studies were assessed for risk of bias using NIH Quality Assessment Tools; one study rated "Poor" was excluded, leaving seven studies rated as "Fair" or "Good." The included studies were primarily cross-sectional or observational cohorts conducted in Italy, the USA, the UK, Australia, and the Netherlands, utilizing both validated instruments and ad hoc questionnaires to measure emotional regulation. The findings highlight two primary conclusions. First, driving anger emerged as a distinct and significant cause of impairment, leading to increased violations and errors among young drivers. Second, risky driving behavior is influenced by a heterogeneous set of factors, including personality traits like impulsivity and the specific emotional regulation strategies employed. Impulsivity was positively correlated with driving violations and errors, while sensation-seeking was linked to errors. Crucially, cognitive reappraisal (an antecedent-focused strategy) was found to increase risk perception and reduce violations, whereas suppression (a response-focused strategy) was associated with impulsivity and did not mitigate risk effectively. External support, such as voice assistants prompting reappraisal, improved driving performance and reduced anger more effectively than self-regulation. Additionally, sleep deprivation was identified as a factor that impairs emotional regulation and impulse control, increasing the likelihood of risky behaviors like driving while sleepy. The significance of this research lies in its implication for road safety interventions. The results suggest that improving young drivers' ability to adaptively express emotions, accept negative feelings, and control impulsive behavior can reduce driving risks. Specifically, promoting cognitive reappraisal over suppression and addressing sleep hygiene may mitigate the negative impacts of emotional dysregulation. The study underscores the need for targeted educational programs that enhance emotional maturity and regulation skills in young drivers to address the human factor in traffic accidents.
Key finding
Driving anger is a primary cause of impairment for young drivers, while adaptive emotional regulation strategies like cognitive reappraisal significantly reduce risky driving behaviors and violations.
Methodology
review
Sample size: 8
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 scout_discovery on 2026-05-08.
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | partial | scout | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-08 |
| archive | success | openalex | — | — | 8 | 2026-06-06 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-04 |
| enrich | success | semantic_scholar | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-04 |
| 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 | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
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- Theoretical Contribution: theory or model