Ethnic and gender differences in attitudes toward driving

Abstract

A convenience sample of 424 students from the University of Texas at El Paso and Wright State University were surveyed about attitudes and behaviors regarding operating a motor vehicle. The object of this study was to examine the effects of gender and ethnicity on attitudes towards driving. Gender had more effects on driving attitudes than ethnicity. However, Hispanic students reported needing significantly more drinks to get drunk than non-Hispanics, regardless of gender despite weighing significantly less. These differences in behaviors may help account for the over-representation of the Hispanic ethnic groups in driving outcomes such as collisions and deaths.