Adaptation française de l'échelle de colère au volant D.A.S. : quels liens entre colère éprouvée au volant, infractions et accidents de la route déclarés par de jeunes automobilistes ?

The aim of this research was to test, in two sudies, the relationships between trait driving anger (recorded by our French adaptation of the Driving Anger Scale, Deffenbacher et al., 1994), violations and traffic accidents self-reported among young drivers (N =284). After examination of construct validity and reliability of the D.A.S. scores, we found that the original six factors structure solution was not exactly replicated in the first study whereas more appropriate items configuration was suggested in the second study. In both studies, Cronbach α reliabilities for D.A.S. factors were ranged from 0.68 to 0.90, driving anger was positively correlated with self-reported traffic violations (R >0.30). Best predictors of driving violations were D.A.S. factors, and more particularly anger evoked by slow driving. A positive relationship was observed between the D.A.S. factor “Discourtesy” and traffic accidents (R =0.20) only in study 2. Globally, findings replicated earlier findings obtained in the anglo-american context. The implications of the findings for intervention strategies were considered.