Driving performance in new mothers: The mediating role of persistent fatigue

IF 3.5 2区工程技术 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, APPLIED

Transportation Research Part F-Traffic Psychology and Behaviour Pub Date : 2025-02-01 DOI:10.1016/j.trf.2025.01.023

Mar Sánchez-García , Pedro M. Valero-Mora , Eva Carvajal-Roca

{"title":"Driving performance in new mothers: The mediating role of persistent fatigue","authors":"Mar Sánchez-García , Pedro M. Valero-Mora , Eva Carvajal-Roca","doi":"10.1016/j.trf.2025.01.023","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Introduction</h3><div>The link between driver fatigue and an elevated risk of traffic crashes has been firmly established, with most studies focusing on the effects of acute fatigue induced by sleepiness. However, specific demographic segments experience persistent fatigue, which, although similar to acute fatigue, requires distinct mitigation strategies. New parents, particularly within the first two years of their baby's life, are especially vulnerable to prolonged fatigue, potentially impairing their driving abilities and increasing the likelihood of crashes. Yet, there is a lack of research on the impact of this type of fatigue in this subgroup.</div></div><div><h3>Method</h3><div>We evaluated the driving performance of two groups of women: one comprised of mothers with infant children under 2 years old (n=66) and the other without infant children (n=46). We used a driving simulator to assess various outcomes related to speed, lateral control, and the identification of roadside objects.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Employing a causal mediation framework, we hypothesized that perceived subjective fatigue would act as a mediator between having young infants and driving ability. Our findings revealed that participants in both groups—women with and without infants—maintained similar speeds and nearly identical lateral control during driving, despite reporting varying levels of subjective fatigue. However, women with infants exhibited a longer average response time (nearly half a second) and made more errors (twice as many) in identifying roadside objects.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>Although the indirect effect mediated by subjective fatigue explained some of these differences, a significant portion remained unexplained. This suggests that additional factors not considered in our study may contribute to the association between having young infants and diminished driving performance.</div></div><div><h3>Practical applications</h3><div>Raising self-awareness of the perils of persistent fatigue may help to reduce driving crashes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48355,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part F-Traffic Psychology and Behaviour","volume":"109 ","pages":"Pages 977-991"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Transportation Research Part F-Traffic Psychology and Behaviour","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847825000233","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, APPLIED","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Introduction

The link between driver fatigue and an elevated risk of traffic crashes has been firmly established, with most studies focusing on the effects of acute fatigue induced by sleepiness. However, specific demographic segments experience persistent fatigue, which, although similar to acute fatigue, requires distinct mitigation strategies. New parents, particularly within the first two years of their baby's life, are especially vulnerable to prolonged fatigue, potentially impairing their driving abilities and increasing the likelihood of crashes. Yet, there is a lack of research on the impact of this type of fatigue in this subgroup.

Method

We evaluated the driving performance of two groups of women: one comprised of mothers with infant children under 2 years old (n=66) and the other without infant children (n=46). We used a driving simulator to assess various outcomes related to speed, lateral control, and the identification of roadside objects.

Results

Employing a causal mediation framework, we hypothesized that perceived subjective fatigue would act as a mediator between having young infants and driving ability. Our findings revealed that participants in both groups—women with and without infants—maintained similar speeds and nearly identical lateral control during driving, despite reporting varying levels of subjective fatigue. However, women with infants exhibited a longer average response time (nearly half a second) and made more errors (twice as many) in identifying roadside objects.

Conclusions

Although the indirect effect mediated by subjective fatigue explained some of these differences, a significant portion remained unexplained. This suggests that additional factors not considered in our study may contribute to the association between having young infants and diminished driving performance.

Practical applications

Raising self-awareness of the perils of persistent fatigue may help to reduce driving crashes.

查看原文本刊更多论文

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Transportation Research Part F-Traffic Psychology and Behaviour Multiple-

CiteScore

7.60

自引率

14.60%

发文量

239

审稿时长

71 days

期刊介绍： Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour focuses on the behavioural and psychological aspects of traffic and transport. The aim of the journal is to enhance theory development, improve the quality of empirical studies and to stimulate the application of research findings in practice. TRF provides a focus and a means of communication for the considerable amount of research activities that are now being carried out in this field. The journal provides a forum for transportation researchers, psychologists, ergonomists, engineers and policy-makers with an interest in traffic and transport psychology.