WHY SOME MALES DO (NOT) ENGAGE IN DRINKING AND DRIVING: THE EMERGENCE OF ROAD SAFETY KNOWLEDGE, RELATIONAL RISK, AND SOCIAL CAPITAL EXPLANATIONS.

摘要

Drinking and driving (DD) has been studied through disciplines such as transportationengineering, epidemiology, psychology, economics and criminology. In order to complementsome of these analyses I discuss and examine, in the particular context of male drivers and DDbehavior, three sociological perspectives: road safety education, relational risk, and socialcapital. In order to assess these approaches, I apply logistic regression to predict selfassessmentsof DD. Results indicate that while road safety education is a weak predictor,relational risk and social capital provide us with a more comprehensive understanding of thisphenomenon. Male drivers who engage in DD are more likely to be divorced, have no children,and perceive DD to be a low risk behavior. Findings and limitations of this study are discussedin reference to both road safety and sociological literatures. Data were taken from the “RoadUsers Attitudes and Behaviors towards Traffic Safety” survey from the National Commission ofRoad Safety of the Government of Chile (2005). The sample size was reported to be 2,118 (N ofmale drivers was 396). This survey was representative of Chile’s Metropolitan Regionpedestrian, passenger and driver population.