Psychology 409a - April 3, 2006
Children and Road Rage: Raising a New Breed
By Aaron Reich

Leon James and Diane Nahl (2000). Road Rage and Aggressive Driving: Steering Clear of Highway Warfare. (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books) pp. 151-166

Instructions for this activity are found at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/g24-oral1.htm
Instructor: Dr. Leon James

I. Road Rage Kids

  • According to experts on aggressive driving, road rage is a cultural phenomenon that is caused primarily from the influence of past generations. In other words, the driving behavior of one's parents is the most influential factor on his or her own driving behavior. The media and peer groups are other factors that certainly influence how a person drives; however, given the proper training from parents, a person can recognize when others are driving badly and consciously choose not to drive that way. Without the proper training, children can easily acquire bad driving behaviors from movies and other drives; and further, children learn most of their bad driving behaviors directly from their parents.

  • Aggressive driving is the current norm for behavior on the highways, and motorists are often proud of their aggressiveness and don't try to hide it from their children. As a result, children hear their parents swearing and demeaning other drivers and naturally learn to mimick the behavior of their parents. As early as infancy, children begin to acquire driving behaviors (good or bad) from their parents. The text offers several accounts of children with road rage tendencies, including one where a little girl gets out of the car with her mother and demeans the other woman driver by calling her "studid lady" repeatedly. It seems common sense that children would learn road rage from their parents, but it is still amazing and appalling to read accounts like these.

  • The emotional reactions of children are shaped by mimicking adult feelings; obviously, it can be very detrimental to behave aggressively in front of children. They (children) naturally soak up the norms of their environment and thus road rage is passed on to the next generation. There is another shocking account in the text of a little boy and girl riding with their father. The father becomes angry at another driver and flips him off, the other driver gets out and walks toward the car, and the children start to tell their father, "Get him, Daddy! Run him down!" The children became caught up in their father's hostility toward the other man. These children were learning to meet challenges on the road with violence and anger years before they will even get behind the wheel of a car.

  • Children are very capable of triggering road rage in other drivers, either while they are walking as pedestrians or traveling in other cars as passengers. Children, especially those who have learned to be aggressive toward other drivers from their parents, like to play games with drivers on the road. They will pretend to shoot at them, make faces at them, walk very slowly in front of them, or even throw things at cars. These kinds of behaviors are unacceptable and children must be taught in constructive ways so they will not be tempted to behave in this destructive manner.

    • II. Raising Children to be Supportive Drivers

  • To avoid becoming involved in road rage incidents, kids have to learn a complex set of rules and skills from their parents and/or other teachers. These include things like keeping safe walking distance from road ways, understanding traffic signals, taking responsiblity for their own safety near roads, and respecting the rights of everyone using the roads. Children who understand these critical good behaviors will not purposely or accidently trigger road rage in other drivers or their own parents.

  • The best way to teach children emotional intelligence and how to be supportive drivers is to model good driving behavior for them. It is also necessary to hold children responsible for being safe passengers. They need to be rewarded for good passenger behavior and they will enjoy pleasing their parents and receiving rewards. Rewards can be simple and small things, like positive comments, a colorful sticker, a small notebook, a certain privelege, a special food, extra computer time, etc. This helps children learn to value being a good passenger, and likewise, this sets a good example for them when they become drivers and when they become parents.

  • Children need frequent positive reinforcement for doing the right thing inside the car. These rewards can include other things like charts of progress or badges of merit, and especially verbal compliments. Children will love earning these rewards and will become very good passengers through this system. Due to the dangerous environment of driving, it is especially important that children learn good behavior. This sort of training for children will help them learn to be kind and supportive drivers later in life, knowing that they have the power to contribute to a safe driving trip. Once this process begins, children can actually become supportive passengers and can contribute to improving the driving behavior of their parents.

  • Children Against Road Rage (CARR) was founded in 1997 by Dr. James. It is an interactive Web site for collecting and providing infomation with the main goal of transforming children into emotionally intelligent and supportive drivers and reversing the current road rage epidemic. The program involves several activities and questioneers that are designed to increase children's awareness of aggressive driving. These activities also serve to improve the supportive driving behaviors of parents. The text provides several examples of these activities and describes their basic purposes. They seem very appropriate, and with a dedicated parent to teach them they would be great help for children.

    • III. Related Links

    1. Kids and Road Rage - This is a link to a web page from a student of one of Dr. James' previous generations of this course. This student elaborates on the topic of children and road rage and provides links to students from even earlier generations about the same topic.

    2. Are We Raising the Road Rage Generation? - This is a link to an article on FemaleFirst, an online magazine for women, which summarizes the phenomenon of inherited road rage described in this outline. I provided this link to show that many people are starting to understand that road rage is a learned behavior.

    3. Traffic Calming vs. Road Rage Generating - This is a link to a blog of a person who calls himself the Gray Monk. He gives an account of what he learned from a television program. I chose this link because he goes on to say that we need to teach children how to avoid road rage from an early age.

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