Per-Arne Rimmö

Trauma exposure and post‐traumatic stress disorder in the general population

Objective:  To examine the lifetime prevalence of trauma experiences and post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Dimensions of aberrant driver behaviour

In the present paper, a study of driver errors was replicated in a survey of over 1400 drivers. New error items were added to the Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ). An analysis of data based on the original DBQ confirmed the three-factor structure obtained. When new items were included in the analysis a four-factor solution was found to be more appropriate. Two of the four factors correspond to the two factors presented previously, namely violations and dangerous errors, while the third factor, harmless lapses, was split into two new factors, inattention errors and inexperience errors in the present study. Inattention errors were shown to be of special interest as the scores for this factor increased with age, thus indicating errors that might be caused by automatization of driver behaviour.

Older drivers' aberrant driving behaviour, impaired activity, and health as reasons for self-imposed driving limitations

The present study used a mail survey addressed to Swedish drivers aged between 55 and 92 years (n=939) to study the relationship between driving exposure, health, and four types of self-reported aberrant driving behaviour as measured with a Swedish version of the driver behaviour questionnaire. Age and gender were the most important predictors of the tendency to sometimes avoid driving. However, even after accounting for age and gender, reports of own erroneous driving behaviour because of inattention (e.g., failure to notice a signal) and inexperience errors (viz., handling the car), as well as impaired health, were related to self-imposed driving limitations, whereas the violations and mistakes factors were not. Problems with activities of daily living were only marginally associated with self-imposed driving limitations, mediated through inattention and inexperience errors. The results support the notion that older drivers adjust their driving in response to their health and to the problems they experience while driving.

On the distinction between violations and errors: sensation seeking associations

Abstract In this study about 700 young adult Swedish drivers aged 18–27 yr responded to a questionnaire on sensation seeking, the tendency to engage in risky behaviours, four types of aberrant driving behaviour (violations, mistakes, inattention and inexperience errors), traffic offences and accident involvement. These results suggest, not unreasonably, a differential relationship between different aspects of sensation seeking and aberrant driving behaviour. Whereas sensation seeking explained a large part of the variation in the violations factor, it accounted for very little of the variance in the other aberrant driving behaviour factors. This finding corresponds reasonably well with a hypothesis calling for a distinction between violations and errors. Still after controlling for the effect of exposure the self-reported accidents was associated with self-reported violations and driving mistakes. Self-reported traffic offences was associated with violations. Consequently, the violations and mistakes factors proved to be stable predictors of offences and accidents. The hierarchical approach taken in this study also shows how the construct of sensation seeking may be associated with aberrant driving behaviour.

Aberrant driving behaviour: homogeneity of a four-factor structure in samples differing in age and gender.

Four samples, representing a broad age range, were compared in confirmatory factor analyses with respect to a four-factor model of aberrant driving behaviour. With the restrictions imposed on the data by the model, an approximate fit was obtained for all four samples. Additional analyses, which tested equality of factor loadings and correlations for different age groups, also indicated that the model was a good fit. Separate analyses on male and female respondents yielded similar results. Although earlier results have shown that aberrant driving behaviours are differentially related to age and gender, the findings suggest that structural differences in relation to age and gender may be of minor importance. The four-factor model of aberrant driving behaviour sufficiently meets statistical criteria in a model-generating phase. In addition, it is an appropriate solution to apply on data obtained from respondents varying in age and gender.