Conceptualizing and Measuring Confidence in Older Drivers: Development of the Day and Night Driving Comfort Scales

Associations between age, gender, psychosocial and health characteristics in the Candrive II study cohort

“…Gender comparison revealed that men were more comfortable driving than women in this cohort. These findings are consistent with others studies which have noted that women tend to be less confident and hold more negative attitudes toward driving (e.g., Gwyther and Holland, 2012;Myers et al, 2008;Myers et al, 2011;Tuokko et al, 2007a). …”

“…In other contexts, psychosocial factors (e.g., perceptions, attitudes and beliefs) have been identified as central to the process of voluntary behavior change (e.g., Bandura, 2004), while measures developed specifically for driving (e.g., driving comfort, perceived driving ability) have been linked to self-reported driving frequency and avoidance MacDonald et al, 2008;Myers et al, 2008) as well as actual driving exposure and patterns Myers et al, 2008;Myers et al, 2011). Similarly, Gwyther and Holland (2012) observed that anxious driving style and negative attitudes toward driving were independent predictors of reported avoidance of difficult driving situations.…”

“…Psychosocial factors (e.g., perceptions, attitudes and beliefs) have been identified as central to the process of voluntary behaviour change, when studied in other contexts (e.g., smoking cessation, exercise enhancement). In previous research, measures of these constructs specific to the context of driving have been linked to self-reported restrictions in older drivers MacDonald et al, 2008;Myers et al, 2008;Tuokko et al, 2006), as well as objectively measured restrictions in driving exposure (i.e., distance, duration) and patterns (i.e., radius from home, driving at night and in bad weather, Myers et al, 2008;Myers et al, 2011).…”

The relationship between cognitive performance, perceptions of driving comfort and abilities, and self-reported driving restrictions among healthy older drivers

“…Possible scores range from 0% to 100%; higher scores indicate greater driving comfort. Both the daytime and nighttime comfort scales have demonstrated good testtest reliability over a two-week period (ICCs = .70 and .88) and excellent structural properties (unidimensionality, hierarchiality, goodness of fit, interval properties (MacDonald et al, 2008;Myers et al, 2008). A subsequent study with another sample of older drivers supported the test-retest reliability of both the daytime and nighttime driving comfort scales over one week (ICCs =.89 and .92) .…”

“…The 13-item daytime (DCS-D) and 16-item nighttime (DCS-N) driving comfort scales were inductively developed in a series of studies with older drivers (MacDonald et al, 2008;Myers et al, 2008). Possible scores range from 0% to 100%; higher scores indicate greater driving comfort.…”