From parents to children—similarity in parents and offspring driving styles

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Abstract

This study examined the associations between parents and their adult children driving style. The multidimensional driving style inventory, a self-report scale, was completed by 475 members of 174 families (father and/or mother, and one offspring), to assess four broad domains of driving style. Significant associations were found between parents and offspring’s driving styles. In addition, specific associations were found between father–son and mother–daughter driving styles. The discussion focused on the importance of examining intra-familial transmission of driving styles as a basis for planning and designing effective safety interventions.

Introduction

Involvement in reckless driving and vehicle accidents is a major social problem, and most of Western societies are investing a variety of resources in prevention and intervention programs. One very important question that has not yet gained sufficient attention concerns the intergenerational transmission of risky behaviors. Because some interventions presuppose that parents may serve as socialization figures, as effective change agents, and as enforcement devices for their young adult children (e.g., Beck, Shattuck, & Raliegh, 2001; Hartos, Eitel, Haynie, & Simons-Morton, 2000), it is important to investigate whether and how parents influence their children’s driving style. Social learning, intergenerational, and socialization theories place significant emphasis on familial behaviors and attitudes that might have a critical impact on the development of problems among offspring (Kandel & Andrews, 1987). Parents may shape offspring’s driving patterns both by their own driving behavior model and by the ways they interpret societal norms and values regarding reckless driving. Hence, it seems important to examine to what extent do parents and their offspring have similar driving patterns.

Through their responsibility for risk management education, parents have an opportunity to influence their children’s driving habits by family socialization processes. However, the role of parents in managing their children’s driving habits, and in reducing their children’s chance of getting involved in crashes did not gain much attention in empirical studies (Ferguson, Williams, Chapline, Reinfurt, & De Leonardis, 2001; Hartos et al., 2000; Preusser, Williams, & Lund, 1985; Simons-Morton & Hartos, 2003; Taubman - Ben-Ari, Mikulincer, & Iram, in press), and when it did—it referred to adolescents, especially in their provisional phase.

Active monitoring of teen driving was found to provide parents with direct opportunities for instruction and modeling of driving skills, as well as for assessment of ability, maturity, and judgment, and to positively affect responsible driving in adolescents (Beck et al., 2001; Hartos et al., 2000). It allows them to restrict young drivers regarding when, where, and with whom to drive. Moreover, there is empirical evidence for a positive association between parental characteristics and adolescents’ driving and traffic violations or crash involvement. For example, involvement in risky driving was found to be associated with more influence of friends than of parents, fewer parental models for health behavior (Jessor, 1987), less restrictions placed by parents on their adolescent children’s driving (Beck et al., 2001), and by perception of parents as having less influence over traveling and imposing less restrictions on driving (Hartos et al., 2000; Preusser et al., 1985). It is reasonable to believe that such practices shape the way the younger adult, and later on—the older adult, relates to driving.

In regard to intergenerational transmission of reckless behaviors, it has been shown that parents affect their offspring’s use of alcohol and cigarettes, through both modeling of specific behaviors and parenting styles (White, Johnson, & Buyske, 2000). Furthermore, these various problem behaviors have been shown to relate to risky driving behaviors (Donovan, 1993; Jessor, 1987; Vinglis & Adlaf, 1990). More specifically to driving, in one study, parents’ influence on crash and violation rates of their young adult children (in a sample of 155,349 young drivers), was examined by comparing parent-offspring car accidents and violation records. Parents’ driving records were found to be predictive of their children’s records. That is, parents with poor driving records were more likely to have children with poor driving records (Ferguson et al., 2001). Other studies on family risky-behaviors-transmission had several methodological shortcomings, including reliance on children’s perception of their parents rather than on parents’ self-report of reckless driving.

In the present study, we examined the transmission of driving styles by asking both adult children and their parents to report on their driving style. Driving style refers to the ways drivers choose to drive or to their habitual driving mode. It includes selection of driving speed, headway, and habitual level of general attentiveness and assertiveness. In addition, driving style is expected to be influenced by attitudes and beliefs regarding driving as well as more general needs and values (Elander, West, & French, 1993). On the basis of this definition, Taubman - Ben-Ari, Mikulincer, and Gillath (2004) suggested four broad driving styles, which were conceptualized in the multidimensional driving style inventory (MDSI): (a) reckless and careless driving style, (b) anxious driving style, (c) angry and hostile driving style, (d) patient and careful driving style. The reckless and careless driving style refers to deliberate violations of safe driving norms, and to seeking sensations and thrill while driving. It characterizes persons who drive at high speeds, race cars, pass other cars in prohibited-passing zones, and drive while intoxicated, which probably endangers themselves and others. The anxious driving style reflects feelings of alertness and tension as well as ineffective engagement in relaxing activities during driving. The angry and hostile driving style refers to expressions of irritation, rage, and hostile attitudes and acts while driving, and reflects a tendency to act aggressively on the road—cursing, blowing the horn, or “flashing” to other drivers. The patient and careful driving style reflects a well-adjusted driving style, and refers to planning ahead, paying attention, patience, politeness, keeping calm while driving and obeying traffic rules.

The MDSI factors were found to be related to general personality characteristics such as self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1979), need for control (Burger & Cooper, 1979), sensation seeking (Zuckerman, Kuhlman, Joireman, & Kraft, 1993), extraversion (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1967), trait anxiety (Spilberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene, 1970), and neuroticism (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1967). Specifically, self-esteem, which represents a highly adaptive and healthy personality trait (Rosenberg, 1979), was positively associated with careful and patient driving style, and inversely associated with dissociative and risky driving styles. Whereas the need for control was positively associated with MDSI factors of anger and carefulness, sensation seeking was directly manifested in the endorsement of risky and high-velocity styles, and extraversion was inversely related to MDSI factors of dissociative and anxious driving. Traits of anxiety and neuroticism, which are basic signs for psychological maladjustment, were both positively associated with anxious and dissociative driving styles and inversely related to careful driving style (Taubman - Ben-Ari et al., 2004). Moreover, a significant association was found between MDSI factors and self-reports of involvement in car accidents and driving offenses. Namely, angry and risky driving styles were significantly associated with self-reports on more frequent involvement in car accident and committing driving offenses, whereas, careful driving style contributed to lower involvement in car accidents (Taubman - Ben-Ari et al., 2004).

Based on a social learning perspective, we would like to suggest that adult children driving styles will be related to parental driving styles. In other words, we predicted that parents’ driving styles will be reflected in their offspring’s driving styles.

In addition, research has shown that male offspring are more likely to be involved with their fathers, and female offspring with their mothers (Harris & Morgan, 1991). More specifically, Yu and Perrine (1997) found that the parent-child alcohol use transmission was gender specific. Thus, fathers’ drinking tends to affect sons’ drinking and mothers’ drinking tends to affect daughters’ drinking. Similarly, Wickrama, Conger, Wallace, and Elder (1999) found that mother health-risk lifestyles (e.g., poor eating, physical exercise, smoking, etc.) is transmitted only to adolescent girls, whereas father health-risk lifestyles is transmitted only to adolescent boys. We therefore hypothesized that the associations between parents and adult children driving styles will be strongest along the same gender lines.

Hence, our predictions are:

  • (1)

    there will be positive associations between parents’ and offspring’s driving styles;

  • (2)

    the associations between fathers and sons driving styles and between mothers and daughters driving styles will be stronger than between fathers and daughters or mothers and sons.

Section snippets

Participants

One hundred and seventy-four families (father, and/or mother, and one offspring) with driving licenses from various geographical areas in Israel, who drive on a regular basis, volunteered to participate in the study, and agreed to complete a self-report scale. The questionnaires were distributed to the younger participants in various high schools, colleges and universities in Israel, and they were also asked to have their parents complete the questionnaires. The complete sample included 238

Results

Table 1 shows the MDSI factor means and standard deviations for each family member (fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters). A series of one-way ANOVAs were conducted to assess differences in driving styles between family members. All four ANOVAs yielded significant main effects for family member, F(3, 471) = 8.61, p < .001, η2 = .05, for the anxious driving, F(3, 471) = 31.85, p < .001, η2 = .17, for the reckless driving style, F(3, 471) = 19.69, p < .001, η2 = .11, for the angry driving style, and F(3, 471) = 12.14, p

Discussion

The current study aimed to examine the similarity between parents and adult children’s driving styles, to document intergenerational associations. Though various studies dealt in the past with the contribution of parents’ personality traits and parental raring approaches to reckless driving (Beck et al., 2001; Hartos et al., 2000; Preusser et al., 1985), and one study compared parents and children’s traffic records (Ferguson et al., 2001), no prior study tried to explore the intergenerational

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    This research was partly supported by the General Motors Foundation.

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