Associations of anger while driving and driving style with aggressive behaviors in drivers

Objective To explore correlations between road rage,driving style and aggressive driving behaviors in drivers.Methods A self-filled questionnaire survey was conducted among 313 drivers (196 males and 117 females) aged 18 years or above selected with convenience sampling in 3 cities of Hebei province in June 2015.Multi-dimension Driving Style Scale,Anger Expression Scale,and Driving Style Scale were adopted in the study.Results The female drivers showed significantly lower scores for risky driving (18.89±6.08 vs.20.57±4.94),angry driving (14.27±4.58 vs.16.88±4.66),and anxious driving (30.01±9.78 vs.32.78±7.23) (P<0.01 for all).The drivers with the driving experience of less than 2 years and 2-5 years had significantly higher dimensional scores of aggressive driving behaviors (neglecting others,occupying driving space,having unnecessary overtaking,and conducting personal assailment) than the drivers with the driving experience of more than 5 years (P<0.05 for all).There were significant differences in dimensional scores of angry driving (behavior intensity,behavior frequency,verbal aggression,venting to car,and self-adjustment)between the professional drivers and non-professional drivers (P<0.01 for all).The private car drivers had significantly lower dimensional scores for angry driving (behavior intensity,behavior frequency,verbal aggression,and venting to car)than the drivers of other kinds of motor vehicles (P<0.01 for all).Significantly positive correlations were observed between risky driving,anxious driving and dimensional factors of angry emotion (P<0.01 for all) and dimensional factors of aggressive driving behavior (P<0.05 for all); angry driving was positively correlated to dimensional factors of angry driving (behavior intensity,behavior frequency,verbal aggression,and self-adjustment) and dimensional factors of aggressive driving (neglecting others,occupying driving space,fast driving,and having unnecessary overtaking) significantly(P<0.05 for all).Anxious driving was a predictor of aggressive driving behavior(β=1.830,P<0.001).Conclusion Road rage and driving style of a driver are influenced by the driver's gender,years of driving,the type of the car driven,and whether being a professional driver.The drivers with higher scores of driving style scale and intensive expression of angry emotion are more likely to have aggressive driving behaviors.