Effectiveness of Mindful Self-compassion Training on Aggressive Driving Behavior

 Aggressive driving behavior is one of the most important causes of accidents, followed by death and disability in people. In order to prevent and reduce these injuries, various methods have been used, one of which is psychological interventions. In this regard, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effectiveness of mindful self-compassion training on risky driving behavior.

This research is a semi-experimental research and a pre-test post-test design with a control group. The statistical population included all drivers with the negative score of 30 in the first season of 2011 in Tehran, of which 30 people were selected as a sample by purposeful sampling and were randomly divided into two experimental and control groups (15 people). The research instrument was the Manchester Driving Behavior Questionnaire (1990). All participants, in both groups, answered it before and after the intervention and 3 months later in the follow-up phase. Mindful self-compassion training was provided to the experimental group during 8 sessions (weekly), each session lasting 60 minutes, and the control group did not receive any intervention. The data was statistically analyzed using SPSS 26 and repeated measures analysis of variance test.

 The results showed that mindful self-compassion training was effective on risky driving behavior and reduced it. Also, there was a significant difference (p<0.005) between the test and control groups in the subscales of risky driving behavior (slips, intentional violations, mistakes, unintentional violations).

Based on the results obtained in this research and considering that mindful self-compassion training is effective in reducing aggressive driving behavior, this training can be used specifically for high-risk drivers.