Cross-cultural comparison of driving skills among students in four different countries

The first aim of the present study was to increase our knowledge of cultural differences in self-reported perceptual-motor skills and safety skills. The second aim was to examine the relationship between self-reported perceptual-motor skills, safety skills and accident involvement in four different countries. A sample of Finnish (N = 200), Swedish (N = 200), Greek (N = 200) and Turkish (N = 200) drivers completed a questionnaire based on the driver skill inventory (DSI) and reported their accident involvement during the previous 3 years. The results showed that Greek and Turkish drivers reported higher yearly accident involvement than did Swedish and Finnish drivers. Greek, Turkish and Swedish drivers reported stronger perceptual-motor skills than did Finnish drivers; while Greek, Turkish and Finnish drivers reported stronger safety skills than did Swedish drivers. This suggests that the country differences in self-reported perceptual-motor skills and safety skills do not reflect the differences in accident statistics on a country level. Moreover, self-reported safety skills were negatively related to self-reported yearly accident involvement in all four countries taken together as well as in Greece and Turkey taken separately. This suggests that differences in drivers’ accident involvement are associated with their self-reported safety skills.

► Cross-cultural DSI-study including Finland, Sweden, Greece and Turkey.
► Items which are rated differently by drivers in the four countries are identified.
► The items relation to drivers’ self-reported yearly accident involvement is examined.