Examining relationships between anxiety and dangerous driving

Abstract

Driving anxiety that has developed following crashes has been studied relatively frequently, but anxiety per se and its effects on driving has not as yet garnered much attention in the literature. The current study included 1121 participants and found higher levels of general anxiety were related to a wide variety of dangerous driving behaviors. While there were clear and expected sex differences on many dangerous driving variables, there were still more such differences with regard to anxiety levels and independent of sex, higher levels of anxiety were associated with greater levels of dangerous driving. Of particular import, it was found that the high anxiety group had caused significantly more crashes and engaged in more DUI episodes than the low and/or medium anxiety groups. Taken as a whole, the results suggest there is a tremendous need for more research in the area of anxiety and dangerous driving and that interventions for highly anxious drivers may well be warranted.