Young Drivers ‘on the Phone: Personality Traits, Driving Attitudes, Beliefs, and Risk Perception on Using Mobile Phone While Driving

Road traffic accidents have emerged as an important public health issue. In 2019, the 27 EU Member States reported more than 22,800 road fatalities. In Italian context, 3,173 people were killed in road accidents, whose 13.89% were under 25. Driving distraction is the leading cause of driving accidents (ISTAT in Road Accident 2019, 2020), particularly due to the driver engagement in secondary tasks, such as smartphone usage. Although many studies have investigated the effects of mobile phone use when driving, few have studied the psychological variables underlying such behaviors. Therefore, the reasons why people take these risk behaviors, in particular young drivers, are still unclear. This study attempts to investigate the effects of certain variables—such as attitude toward multitasking, risk perception, self-efficacy, sensation seeking—on using a mobile phone while driving. Data for this study were collected from different Italian High Schools; 1498 young drivers. (43.3% females) completed a driving survey (age 14–21; M = 17.11 and DS = 1.52). We found the aptitude for using a mobile phone while driving is largely explained by the variables that we have considered. Furthermore, multi-group analyses showed that, although multitasking while driving is common for all teenagers.