Citation

Shevlin BRK, Goodwin KA. Transp. Res. F Traffic Psychol. Behav. 2019; 60: 58-67.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.trf.2018.09.027

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study examined how past behavior influences the decision to text while driving among young adults. Exposure to distracted driving behaviors, such as texting and driving, were measured in conjunction with variables related to the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). Participants completed a questionnaire measuring past distracted driving behaviors and traditional TPB variables (intentions, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived control), as well as self-efficacy and moral norms. Texting and driving was found to be a very prevalent behavior, with 83.5% and 76.6% of participants reporting reading or writing a text message while driving in the last 30 days, respectively. Replicating previous studies, regression analyses found that the traditional TPB variables explained a significant proportion of the variance in intentions to text and drive. However, the addition of past behavior, self-efficacy, and moral norms into the model reduced the predictive strength of the traditional TPB variables while increasing the amount of explained variance. The surprising strength of past behavior, self-efficacy, and moral norms suggests that future campaigns and interventions to reduce distracted driving among young adults ought to focus on crafting messages that disrupt the influence of past behavior on future intentions, and concentrate on moral and self-effectual aspects of the behavior.

Language: en

Keywords

Driving; Intentions; Moral norms; Texting; Theory of Planned Behaviour