What causes the differences in driving between young men and women? The effects of gender roles and sex on young drivers’ driving behaviour and self-assessment of skills

The aim of this study was to investigate how sex (male and female) and gender roles (masculinity and femininity) and their interaction were associated with driving skills and accident involvement among young drivers. Two-hundred and seventeen young Turkish drivers (131 males and 86 females) filled in a form including the short form of Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), the Driver Skill Inventory (DSI), and questions about accident history and background information. The effects of sex and gender roles were tested on outcome variables by using Poisson, negative binomial, and hierarchical regression analyses. It was found that sex (being male) predicted the number of total, active, and passive accidents, and perceptual-motor skills. While masculinity score predicted positively the perceptual-motor skills, femininity score predicted positively the safety skills. No significant interaction effects between sex and gender roles on criterion variables were found.

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