The association of self-regulation, habit, and mindfulness with texting while driving

On the impact of on-road partially-automated driving on drivers' cognitive workload and attention allocation

The use of partially-automated or SAE level-2 vehicles is expected to change the role of the human driver from operator to supervisor, which may have an effect on the driver's workload and visual attention. In this study, 30 Ontario drivers operated a vehicle in manual and partially-automated mode. Cognitive workload was measured by means of the Detection Response Task, and visual attention was measured by means of coding glances on and off the forward roadway. No difference in cognitive workload was found between driving modes. However, drivers spent less time glancing at the forward roadway, and more time glancing at the vehicle's touchscreen. These data add to our knowledge of how vehicle automation affects cognitive workload and attention allocation, and show potential safety risks associated with the adoption of partially-automated driving.

Better understanding female and male driving offenders' behavior: Psychological resources and vulnerabilities matter!

Although driving risk taking appears to be mainly male, an increase in driving violations has been observed in recent years among French female drivers. The main objective of the present study was to explore the driving behaviors, psychological resources, and vulnerabilities of female and male driving offenders participating in a French driver rehabilitation program. The second aim was to examine to what extent females' and males' resources and vulnerabilities predicted their violations, engagement in distracting activities while driving, and prosocial driving behaviors. In the course of 110 rehabilitation programs, 1686 driving offenders (22.4% females) completed a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. Compared to male offenders, females were more likely to have received a higher education, be divorced, or separated, and drive fewer annual kilometers. They also had had fewer demerit points than males in the last three years. They were more empathetic but also more impulsive than their male counterparts and less self-compassionate and mindful. Regression and moderation analyses revealed that, across genders, certain psychological resources such as mindfulness can be considered as protective factors for driving offenders as they tend to decrease dangerous behaviors and increase prosocial ones, while vulnerabilities such as aggressive driving anger expression seem to have the opposite effect. Our results provide a better understanding of driving offenders' behavior and the influence of personal dispositions. They also open new interesting research avenues in the prevention of dangerous behaviors among this high-risk population.

Managing social networking stress: the role of self-management in reducing social media exhaustion and improving higher education employee performance

This study investigates the significance of self-management in academic staff stress management related to social networking sites (SNS). It emphasizes particularly on reducing social media exhaustion and increasing job effectiveness. The research applies the stressor-strain-outcome theory and the Smart PLS (partial least squares) analytical approach to examine data from 391 respondents. The study's goal is to provide empirical data on the efficacy of self-control management in reducing SNS stress and its effects on academic staff's psychological wellbeing and job performance. Data is collected by survey using online email platforms among academic employees, and the collected data is examined utilizing the Smart PLS approach. This approach allows for an investigation of the proposed links and their statistical importance. This research's ramifications are important for academic institutions since its results can help academic personnel effectively cope with SNS-related stress. Academic employees can better limit their SNS usage and avoid social media tiredness by promoting self-control management practices. As a result, academic employees' job performance and overall wellbeing may increase. The study's findings help to comprehend how self-management might reduce SNS stress and improve staff performance in the academic sector.

Is distraction on the road associated with maladaptive mobile phone use? A systematic review

Maladaptive Mobile Phone Use (MMPU) (also known as Smartphone Addiction, Nomophobia, Fear of Missing Out, or Problematic Mobile Phone Use) is a growing mental health problem. However, the health and safety consequences of MMPU remain unexplored in many real-life contexts. A potential setting where MMPU may have some negative repercussions is on the road. It is well established that road users (e.g., drivers, motorcyclists, pedestrians, and cyclists) increasingly injure themselves or others due to distractions such as phone use while on the road. Emerging research suggests that MMPU is a possible determinant of this risky behaviour. Therefore, it is essential to investigate the relationship between MMPU and mobile phone use behaviour on the road, as it could help guide and improve interventions aimed at increasing road safety. This systematic review investigated the relationship between maladaptive mobile phone use and mobile phone use behaviour on the road in terms of attitudes and risk perception, intention, phone use engagement, performance changes, and safety outcomes. A total of 44 studies were identified with 47 unique samples of road users, of which 68.1% (32/47) were comprised of drivers, 19.1% (9/47) were pedestrians, 8.5% (4/47) were unspecified road users, and there was one group of motorcyclists and cyclists. Our findings confirmed that MMPU is related to risky behaviour on the roads. In the 29 studies considering observed or self-reported behaviour, 90.9% (30/33) found that road users who scored higher in MMPU are more likely to use their phones on the road as cyclists, drivers, motorcyclists, and pedestrians. Of the nine studies that analysed performance changes, 55.6% (5/9) showed evidence that MMPU changes the performance of road users engaging in mobile phone use, meaning that there is evidence suggesting that MMPU determines the level of impairment. Of the nine studies that analysed the safety-related-outcomes, 66.7% (6/9) found that the higher the MMPU score, the more likely road users are to experience safety-critical traffic events. This review contributes to the literature by showing a pathway between the negative health consequences of MMPU and road trauma. We also identified that the quality of the studies was generally low due to study design and blinding aspects. This field of research also lacks standard practices as researchers avoid using established and well-validated questionnaires, often creating new ones to measure MMPU. This hinders the generalisability of the findings and raises questions about the construct validity and external validity of MMPU. The usefulness of future research would be enhanced by a consistent methodological approach using the same scales based on standard behavioural definitions. The cross-disciplinary nature of MMPU effects means that transport and road safety professionals need to work with healthcare professionals and technology organisations to understand and address MMPU as a contributing factor to road crashes.

It's not a hard and fast rule: A qualitative investigation into factors influencing speeding among young drivers

INTRODUCTION

Research demonstrates that young drivers exceed the posted speed limit more frequently than older drivers, and this demographic is also subsequently overrepresented in road crash statistics. This behavior remains a worldwide problem despite legal enforcement efforts that have proven to have limited efficiency and/or produce counterintuitive results.

METHOD

Consequently, this study undertook a qualitative analysis in order to understand the factors that are perceived to both prevent and promote speeding behavior among young drivers, guided by self-determination theory (SDT). Focus groups were conducted with a total of 60 young drivers aged 17-25 years. An inductive thematic analysis approach was taken to analyze the data.

RESULTS

Findings revealed the following factors influence the prevention of speeding: (1) legal consequences were perceived to deter low-level speeding, (2) fear of injury was believed to prevent high-level speeding, and (3) speed awareness monitors were considered to be an effective countermeasure. Meanwhile, factors perceived to contribute to violating speed restrictions included: (1) perceiving it is safe to do so, (2) a perceived norm to speed, (3) emotions, and (4) unintentional speeding. According to SDT, the factors that were perceived to prevent speeding promote externalized self-regulatory processes and are therefore limited by short-term behavior change.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

The findings have important implications for designing countermeasures aimed at young drivers, not least illuminating the need to have education and media campaigns that target and build drivers' perceived competence, autonomy, and relatedness in relation to speeding in order to promote longer term compliance.

Effects of Organizational Controls on Employees' Cyber-loafing

Cyber-loafing is a workplace deviant behavior that may impose perennial losses and security threats to organizations. Due to the destructive impact, organizations take controls to manage employees' cyber-loafing behavior. While previous research concerning these cyber-loafing controls has yielded inconsistent results, this research further advances this line of research through two primarily adopted organizational controls: computer monitoring and Internet usage policy. We contend that the inconsistent results of the effects of computer monitoring and Internet usage policy on cyber-loafing behavior are due to ignoring the influence of individual differences. Motivated thus, we draw on pertaining literature of trait mindfulness to propose that trait mindfulness moderates the effect of perceived computer monitoring and perceived Internet usage policy on behavioral automaticity towards cyber-loafing, which leads to employees' cyber-loafing behavior. In essence, this paper sheds new light on the relationships amid organizational controls, cyber-loafing behavior, and the moderating effects of trait mindfulness. 450 responses were collected to test these hypotheses. Our results show that trait mindfulness enhances the negative effect of perceived Internet usage policy on behavioral automaticity towards cyber-loafing. In addition, we find out that trait mindfulness has an indirect effect on employees' cyber-loafing behavior by reducing behavioral automaticity.

Drunk Texting: When the Phone Becomes a Vehicle for Emotional Dysregulation and Problematic Alcohol Use

Background: Drunk texting is an understudied phenomenon, despite its ubiquity and evidence suggesting it may be implicated in heavy drinking. Research on texting motivations and use of the phone as a tool for self-regulation also represent newly emerging areas of study. Objective/Method: The goal of the current study was to examine how drunk texting relates to drinking based on difficulties in emotional regulation and texting motivations in a sample of 2,559 women. Results: Drunk texting predicted heavy drinking. Emotional regulation difficulties (specifically, lack of access to strategies and lack of emotional clarity) predicted reliance on texting to escape as well as to facilitate self-expression. Further, indirect associations found that texting to escape strengthened the association between emotional regulation difficulties and drunk texting, while texting as a form of self-expression buffered against this association. Conclusions: These results highlight the extent to which problematic drinking and drunk texting have overlapping associations with emotional regulation, which can result from the presence of certain motivations for text messaging. Implications are discussed for interventions targeting the use of both phones and alcohol to escape, and increasing awareness of emotional states that might trigger such behavior.

Perceived stress and well-being of Polish migrants in the UK after Brexit vote

Objective

This study aimed to investigate factors affecting personal well-being of Polish immigrants living in the UK in the face of a significant political change—the Brexit vote. We measured perceived changes in attitude or behaviour of supervisors and co-workers, respondents’ perceived stress, and its outcomes such as psychological well-being and intention to leave the UK after the Brexit vote.

Method

551 Polish migrants residing in various regions of the UK took part in the study in the form of Qualtrics online survey. We used self-report measures: Perceived Stress Scale, The Satisfaction with Life Scale, Scale of Psychological Well-being.

Results

The most of the respondents did not notice any change in the attitude or behaviour of the supervisor (81%) or co-workers (84%), and only a small percentage of the participants reported negative changes in attitude or behaviour of supervisors (9%) and co-workers (14%). Also, negative change in attitude or behaviour of supervisors or co-workers are associated with perceived stress, which inturn is linked with intention to leave the UK, psychological well-being and life satisfaction.

Conclusion

Polish and British co-existence in a workplace setting has not changed much after the Brexit vote.