title: Differential impact of personality traits on distracted driving behaviors in teens and older adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the impact of personality on distracted driving behaviors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants included 120 drivers (48 teens, 72 older adults) who completed the 45-item Big Five Personality questionnaire assessing self-reported personality factors and the Questionnaire Assessing Distracted Driving (QUADD) assessing the frequency of distracted driving behaviors. Associations for all five personality traits with each outcome (e.g., number of times texting on the phone, talking on the phone, and interacting with the phone while driving) were analyzed separately for teens and older adults using negative binomial or Poisson regressions that controlled for age, gender and education.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In teens, higher levels of openness and conscientiousness were predictive of greater reported texting frequency and interacting with a phone while driving, while lower levels of agreeableness was predictive of fewer reported instances of texting and interacting with a phone while driving. In older adults, greater extraversion was predictive of greater reported talking on and interacting with a phone while driving. Other personality factors were not significantly associated with distracted driving behaviors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Personality traits may be important predictors of distracted driving behaviors, though specific traits associated with distracted driving may vary across age groups. The relationship between personality and distracted driving behaviors provides a unique opportunity to target drivers who are more likely to engage in distracted driving behavior, thereby increasing the effectiveness of educational campaigns and improving driving safety.
authors.affiliation: Translational Research for Injury Prevention (TRIP) Laboratory, 916 19th Street South, Birmingham, AL 35294, United States; Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1300 University Blvd., Birmingham, AL 35294, United States.
authors.forename: Morgan N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Parr
authors.affiliation: The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, 119 Health and Human Development Bldg., University Park, PA 16802, United States.
authors.forename: Lesley A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.affiliation: Translational Research for Injury Prevention (TRIP) Laboratory, 916 19th Street South, Birmingham, AL 35294, United States; Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1300 University Blvd., Birmingham, AL 35294, United States.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: McManus
authors.affiliation: Translational Research for Injury Prevention (TRIP) Laboratory, 916 19th Street South, Birmingham, AL 35294, United States; Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1300 University Blvd., Birmingham, AL 35294, United States.
authors.forename: Haley J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Bishop
authors.affiliation: Translational Research for Injury Prevention (TRIP) Laboratory, 916 19th Street South, Birmingham, AL 35294, United States; Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1300 University Blvd., Birmingham, AL 35294, United States.
authors.forename: Shannon M O
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Wittig
authors.affiliation: Translational Research for Injury Prevention (TRIP) Laboratory, 916 19th Street South, Birmingham, AL 35294, United States; Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1300 University Blvd., Birmingham, AL 35294, United States. Electronic address: dstavrin@uab.edu.
authors.forename: Despina
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stavrinos
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001288:Attention; D040421:Cell Phone; D000071826:Distracted Driving / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D057566:Self Report; D060145:Text Messaging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Big Five Personality; Distracted driving; Driving safety; Older drivers; Teen drivers; Texting