Study of Undergraduate Student’s Aggressive Driving Behavior: Cross Cultural Research (Thailand, Indonesia, Australia)

Abstract

This study aimed: 1) To study the undergraduate students’ aggressive driving behavior in Thailand, Indonesia and Australia; 2) to develop a standard measurement; 3) to compare the aggressive driving behavior in the same and different cultures; 4) to study a relationship between the aggressive driving behavior, driving confidence and the variables in the same and different cultures; and 5) to find out problems of measuring the aggressive driving behavior. The samples in this study were the students from three universities: Mahasarakham University, Thailand; Indonesia University of Education, Indonesia; and Monash University, Australia. The tool used in this study was Aggressive Driving Behavior Measurement with .85 of validity value. The statistics applied in the study were Percentage, Mean, Standard Deviation, T-test, and Variance Analysis. The results of the study indicated that 1) most of the samples performed aggressively in driving at the middle level, 2) the degrees of the discrimination and the validity of an aggressive driving behavior measurement were in a high level, 3) in the same culture, male students had higher aggression than female students, the students with high academic achievement got lower rate of aggressive behavior than those with average academic achievement, and when we compared between Thailand and Indonesia, the higher the students’ driving experience indicated the higher the aggressive driving behavior, and when comparing among different cultures, it indicated that the students with higher academic achievement in Thailand were more aggressive than those in Australia but not different from Indonesia; 4) in Thailand, the aggressive driving behavior was positively related to an accident rate; in Indonesia, the behavior took negative relation to students’ academic achievement but its relation to the driving experience was positive; and in Australia driving experience took a negative relation to the aggression of driving; and 5) there were few of measurement problems – incomplete answer due to the students’ readiness or temper.

Key words: Aggressive driving behavior; Psychological assessment