The driving expectancy questionnaire: Development, psychometric assessment and predictive utility among young drink-drivers

Objective: The primary objective of this research was to develop a Driving Expectancy Questionnaire (DEQ) that reflects a model in which a distinction is made between driving skill and driving style. The second objective was to study young drivers across the spectrum of drink-driving practices, from non drink-drivers to convicted drink-drivers, and to examine the relationship between their expectancies about driving and their drink-driving practices. Method: The data from two separate samples, recruited through availability sampling, were used for the purpose of exploratory (n = 224; 122 men) and confirmatory factor analyses (n = 191: 101 men), respectively. Results: The results revealed two factors of expectancies, driving skill and driving style, supporting the proposed model. The reliability, internal validity and relative independence of the factors were largely confirmed. Furthermore, criterion-related validity was demonstrated: expectancies about driving varied with drink-driving practices. Expectancies also contributed additional predictive power in relation to drink-driving practices beyond that afforded by several well-validated variables. Conclusions: The results are encouraging in terms of the ability of the DEQ to identify individual differences in expectancies about driving skill and driving style that are closely related to variations in drink-driving practices. The practical implications of these findings, as well as the potential research possibilities, are discussed.