title: Gender differences in psychosocial predictors of texting while driving.
abstract: A sample of 158 male and 357 female college students at a midwestern university participated in an on-line study of psychosocial motives for texting while driving. Men and women did not differ in self-reported ratings of how often they texted while driving. However, more women sent texts of less than a sentence while more men sent texts of 1-5 sentences. More women than men said they would quit texting while driving due to police warnings, receiving information about texting dangers, being shown graphic pictures of texting accidents, and being in a car accident. A hierarchical regression for men's data revealed that lower levels of feeling distracted by texting while driving (20% of the variance), higher levels of cell phone dependence (11.5% of the variance), risky behavioral tendencies (6.5% of the variance) and impulsivity (2.3%) of the variance) were significantly associated with more texting while driving (total model variance=42%). A separate regression for women revealed that higher levels of cell phone dependence (10.4% of the variance), risky behavioral tendencies (9.9% of the variance), texting distractibility (6.2%), crash risk estimates (2.2% of the variance) and driving confidence (1.3% of the variance) were significantly associated with more texting while driving (total model variance=31%.) Friendship potential and need for intimacy were not related to men's or women's texting while driving. Implications of the results for gender-specific prevention strategies are discussed.
authors.affiliation: University of South Dakota, 414 E. Clark St., Vermillion, SD 57069, USA. Electronic address: cindysj@usd.edu.
authors.forename: Cindy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Struckman-Johnson
authors.affiliation: University of South Dakota, 414 E. Clark St., Vermillion, SD 57069, USA.
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gaster
authors.affiliation: University of South Dakota, 414 E. Clark St., Vermillion, SD 57069, USA.
authors.forename: Dave
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Struckman-Johnson
authors.affiliation: University of South Dakota, 414 E. Clark St., Vermillion, SD 57069, USA.
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: University of South Dakota, 414 E. Clark St., Vermillion, SD 57069, USA.
authors.forename: Gabby
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: May-Shinagle
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000523:psychology*; D040421:Cell Phone; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012649:Self Concept; D057566:Self Report; D012737:Sex Factors; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D060145:Text Messaging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cell phone dependence; Gender; Risk assessment; Texting while driving