Having read many articles regarding the teenage driver, the older driver, the complacent driver, I decided it was time to release the research carried out by our business, this involved a survey of female driving instructors, female drivers and female learners. the results are quite stunning.
There s a huge amount of emphasis on attitude and driver behaviour, and hormone levels in young males has been touched upon but not thoroughly explored, interestingly those who believe that attitude is behind accident rates amongst young drivers have not explored the medical evidence but accepted the argument put forward by others. It is easy to believe that medical evidence and nature plays no part with the majority being swept up on the nature aspect. Of course we all take on habitual behaviour from our peers but we also develop our own personal traits, so why would we copy risky or dangerous behaviour, as a risk taker does not inspire confidence it inspires fear. The research we have carried out spans five years and the evidence is both qualitative and quantitative.
In 2009 we surveyed 100 female driver trainers, in 2012 we surveyed a further 100 female driver trainers, both groups were selected because of their diversity of clients, we also asked them to survey their female clients. The female group results were interesting, those who were pre-menopausal, as in menstruating regularly reported regular dips in their driving ability, feeling more irritable with other drivers and less tolerant with their clients, those who were post menopause still reported days of reduced driving ability but not of the regularity of the pre-menopause group.
Increased hormonal surges resulted in irritability, poor concentration and driver errors, although this is to be expected as it is a fact that hormone surges affect female behaviour, it is acknowledged that our research was more indepth than any other entered into for research purposes. Menopausal 'brain fogginess' is recognised, but in the teenager driver no consideration is taken into account for menstruation cycles, with the majority of driving instructors being male the learner drivers surveyed found it difficult to convey to their instructor their change in personal feelings and the fact that they were feeling different, some did not relate their change in driver behaviour to their cycle until our survey when they were encouraged to take part in our testing and studies.
Of 100 female learner drivers questioned in 2009 with 79 being of pre menopausal age or state, once asked to keep a record of their learner behaviour reported 'bad lessons' the week before their period, with the remaining 21 reporting discomfort or lack of attention or understanding of the lesson material. All female learner drivers who took part in our 2009 survey admitted to having 'good lessons' the week following their period, where they felt calmer and more able to retain information. The majority said that they had not linked the relationship of menstrual cycle and learning, once identified these students booked their lessons in relation to their cycle and found themselves in a better frame of mind for learning and made an active decision to book a driving test for the week following their cycle, those who had a male instructor chose not to relay their reasons for choosing when they could take a test.
In 2012 the survey results showed a similar vein of pattern, however in 2012 the majority of those questioned did have female instructors yet still chose not to tell their instructor their reason for preferring a particular test day, for our research purposes this confirmed an amount of embarrassment linked to natural occurrences in the body and the student teacher environment.
We moved our survey on to male students, testosterone is harder to pin point as there is no identifiable cycle pattern, so we used specific questioning related to mood, sleeping patterns and social environment. We found that those who discussed their driving with friends who already could drive felt empowered to be better, the hormone surges experienced were high at this point, many experts in this field believe the pattern relates to hunter forager days, where it was survival of the fittest, however our extensive research into the warrior gene resulted in conclusive evidence that a young male driver can display risky behaviour even if they were raised in a risk free environment, where their parents or those with parental responsibility were displaying a calm attitude to driving and a relaxed attitude to poor road behaviour as opposed to aggressive reasoning.
Five years of intensive study has demonstrated to us that risky behaviour is nature as opposed to nurture, although copying the respected family members is evident, this is minimal. The move towards post test training to tackle risky behaviour would be a non starter as the only remedy would be as a result of genetic modification. Adopted learners, and we only had ten of these take part in a nation wide survey, displayed behaviour based on how they felt rather than how they were led. Research into testosterone based behaviour, surges in hormone levels is currently underway with results expected in 2017.
The conclusion of our research to date is those who are peri menopausal are forgetful and more likely to experience spikes in their learning process, those who are pre menopausal, which we consider to be 17 to 45, had learning experiences reflecting as good and bad based on where they were in their cycle, those who had this highlighted to them, which for study purposes was 50% of 2012 study, made a conscious effort to plan their learning around their cycle with 38% claiming that the three days pre-period were the worse.
If disproportionate accident rates amongst young drivers is to be addressed then the physical aspect has to be taken into consideration, several American studies identify testosterone amongst young males as being a significant factor yet this is largely ignored probably because it is believed it cannot be tackled, yet if these results were taken seriously the maybe road fatalities amongst this younger generation could be reduced.
Older drivers know their limitations, and experience has reduced their exposure, testosterone levels in older males reduces, hormone levels in females in the pre menopause group change with age and are also affected by pregnancy.
The final figures for this survey which will include 2014 survey figures amongst specific groups age 17 - 25 female 17 - 25 male and pregnant women, and full time working males will follow this be the end of 2014.
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