Influencing subgroups of young drivers and their passengers. Motivational influences of personality traits on risk-taking attitudes and driving behaviour.

The thesis is based on a questionnaire survey carried out among over 5000 Norwegian adolescents. One of the aims of the thesis was to examine the dimensionality of a measure of attitudes towards traffic safety. Another aim to study the role of personality in relation to attitudes and behaviour. A third aim was to examine factors that may enhance or prevent adolescent passengers to promote safe driving among their peer drivers. The results indicate a strong relation between certain attitudes and driving behaviour. Personality traits seem to primarily influence driving behaviour indirectly through the attitudinal determinants of behaviour. Young drivers can also be classified into subgroups based on individual differences in personality traits. These subgroups differ systematically pertaining to their attitudes, driving behaviour and accident involvement.