Comparison of Coping Appraisal and Threat Appraisal Processes in Predicting Unsafe Driving Behaviors and Intention among 19 years-old-and-above in Drivers Yazd City.

Coping appraisal is a cognitive mediating process in Protection Motivation Theorywhich evaluates one’s ability to cope with or averts threatened danger and included perceived selfefficacy, response efficacy and perceived costs of protective behavior. Threat appraisal processevaluates the factors associated with the behavior that potentially creates danger, including theintrinsic and extrinsic rewards accompanying the behavior, the severity of the danger, and one’svulnerability to it. There are some evidences regarding their effects on intention and behavior ofsome safety areas but there isnt any study on intention and behavior of driving. The purpose of this study was Comparison of Coping Appraisal and Threat Appraisal in predicting unsafe driving behaviors and intention among 19-years-old-andabove drivers in Yazd city. In this cross-sectional study, total number of 379, drivers, which had a driving license were included in the study with a clustered random sampling in the city. Data collection instruments were a self-report questionnaire including demographic variables and subscales for measuring coping appraisal,threat appraisal, unsafe driving intention and behavior which was completed by referring to the participant's houses. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were examined and approved. The data were analyzed using SPSS software and t.test, Pearson correlationcoefficient and Liner Regression statistical tests. There was a significant negative correlation between coping appraisal and intention and unsafe driving behavior and positive significant correlation between threat appraisal and intentionand unsafe driving behavior at 0.01 level. Coping and threat appraisal both predicted 31.1% ofvariance in unsafe driving behavior in which the coping appraisal (β=0.44) exceeded the threatappraisal (β=0.18). The predition of variances in variances in unsafe driving intention throughcoping Appraisal and Threat Appraisal came to 11.7% Only coping Appraisal was statisticallysignificant.Cognitive mediating process of coping appraisal was a more powerful predictor ofintention to unsafe driving behavior. Therefore increasing self efficacy and response efficacy, anddecreasing perceived cost of drivers aimed at facilitating the acceptance of safe behavior could benote-worthy as a principle in education.