Psychometric properties of the peer pressure on risky driving scale in young Chinese drivers and its associations with risky driving behaviours and safe driving climate among friends

Purpose The present study aimed to translate and adapt the Peer Pressure on Risky Driving Scale (PPRDS) to young Chinese drivers and examine its relationships with risky driving behaviours and safe driving climate among friends. Methods Six hundred sixty drivers aged 18 similar to 25 years agreed to participate in this study. The measurements included the PPRDS, Safe Driving Climate among Friends Scale (SDCaF) and Risky Driving Behaviour Scale (RDBS). Results The results of exploratory factor analysis (n = 323) and confirmatory factor analysis (n = 324) yielded a three-factor scale with 20 items. The three factors are risk-encouraging direct, risk-discouraging direct and indirect peer pressure. The reliability of the PPRDS factors ranged from 0.85 to 0.95. The significant associations among the PPRDS, the SDCaF and the RDBS factors suggested that the PPRDS had acceptable concurrent validity. It also had acceptable convergent validity, with the average variance extracted (AVE) values of the three factors ranging from 0.526 to 0.673. Most importantly, drivers with traffic crash scored significantly higher in terms of risk-encouraging direct and indirect peer pressure than did drivers without traffic crash, indicating that the PPRDS had satisfactory known-group validity. Conclusion These findings indicate that the revised PPRDS has satisfactory reliability and validity, making it useful for young driver assessment, classification and testing.