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Published: 2022-11-01

The Role of Coping Strategies in the Relationship between Anger and Risky Driving Behavior

University of Bucharest
anger road rage risk taking risky driving behavior coping mechanisms

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the moderating role of coping mechanisms in the relationship between anger and risky driving behaviour in professional drivers and implicitly, investigate the associations between the concept of road rage and risky driving behaviour on one hand and between risk taking as a personality trait and the manifestation of risk behaviour behind the wheel on the other. The moderating role of coping mechanisms in the relationship between risk taking and risky driving behaviour was also studied in this paper. The study involved 81 participants, professional drivers, both male (58) and female (23), aged between 19 and 59 (M = 37.77, SD = 12.13). The instruments used were The Aggression Questionnaire, The Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, The Jackson Personality Inventory – Risk Taking and The Freight Driving Behaviour Questionnaire. The results showed that both anger and risk taking explained a significant percentage of the risky driving behaviour and were also positively associated with it. At the same time, the results obtained from the moderating analyzes implied that maladaptive coping mechanisms have a moderating role in the relationship between anger and risky driving behaviour, but the adaptive ones did not. Nor the adaptive neither the maladaptive strategies had a significant moderating role in the relationship between risk taking and risky driving behaviour. The conclusions of this study highlighted the theoretical and practical implications of risk related research in matter of developing occupational safety programs and increasing awarness about factors that may influence the manifestation of risky driving behaviour in an organizational environment.

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How to Cite

Rambela, I.-D. (2022). The Role of Coping Strategies in the Relationship between Anger and Risky Driving Behavior. Studia Doctoralia, 13(2), 117–132. https://doi.org/10.47040/sd/sdpsych.v13i2.153