[Anger expression on the road: validity and reliability of the driving anger expression inventory]

The purpose of the current study was to check the validity and reliability of DAX (The Driving Anger Expression Inventory) in a Turkish population.

The study included 220 randomly chosen drivers between the ages of 20 and 65 years from Ankara, Istanbul, and Samsun. The assessment instruments were DAX, The Driving Anger Scale, Brief Symptom Inventory, and the anger symptoms dimension, anger reactions dimension, and anger-eliciting situations dimension of the Multidimensional Anger Scale.

Psychometric analyses of the scale showed that the Turkish-adapted DAX has the same factor structure and, like the original DAX, consists of 4 subscales and 1 index. The analyses revealed that male drivers between 21 and 30 years old reported more physically aggressive expression and that they used their vehicle to express anger, whereas female drivers reported more adaptive/constructive expression. Furthermore, it was found that drivers who were university graduates expressed their anger verbally when driving, while drivers who were primary and secondary school graduates expressed anger physically. Regression analyses showed that traffic violation penalty, police presence, discourteous or disrespectful behavior to other drivers, and driving slow were predictive variables for total aggressive expression (verbal, physical aggressive expression, and using of the vehicle to express anger).

The current study revealed that the Turkish version of DAX might be a valid and reliable scale to measure forms of anger expression related to driving and important signs related to coping with driving-related anger were identified. Furthermore, it can be suggested that DAX could be used as an assessment instrument for driver selection, and it can be used during the psycho-technical assessment procedure.