Affective-symbolic and instrumental-independence psychological motives mediating effects of socio-demographic variables on daily car use

• An empirical study investigates the extent to which affective–symbolic and instrumental–independencepsychologicalmotives mediate effects of socio-demographicvariables on dailycar use in Sweden. Questionnaire data from a mail survey to 1134 car users collected in 2007 were used to assess the relationships dailycar use as driver or passenger have to sex, household type (single or cohabiting with or without children), and residential area (urban, semi-rural or rural). Reliable measures of affective–symbolic and instrumental–independencemotives were constructed. The results show that households with children use the car more than households with no children, that men make more car trips as drivers than women who use the car as passenger more than men, and that households living in rural areas use the car more than households living in semi-rural areas who use the car more than households living in urban areas. An affective–symbolicmotive partially mediates the relationship between the number of weekly car trips and sex, the instrumental–independencemotive partially mediates the relationships between weekly car use and percent car use as driver and several of the socio-demographicvariables (living in urban vs. rural residential area for both measures; sex and living in urban vs. semi-rural residential area for percent car use as driver). Of several other socio-demographicvariables (age, employment, and income) affecting car use, only the relationship of the number of cars to percent car use as driver was (partially) mediated by the instrumental–independencemotive.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

car use

socio-demographic variables

psychological motives

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)