%0 Journal Article
%@ 13698478
%A Herrero-Fernández, David
%A Parada-Fernández, Pamela
%A Rodríguez-Arcos, Irene
%A Amaya-Carrillo, Laura
%A González-Sáez, María Esther
%A Rubio-González, Miriam
%D 2022
%F uneatlantico:590
%J Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour
%K Attachment styles; Driving aggression; Mentalization; Empathy; Alexithymia; Mindful attention
%P 345-355
%T The mediation effect of mentalization in the relationship between attachment and aggression on the road
%U http://repositorio.uneatlantico.es/id/eprint/590/
%V 86
%X Studies regarding aggression on the road are getting more frequent, due to the close relationship of these variables with risky behaviour and crash-related events. Whereas most of research has focused on both contextual and personality (proximal) variables, the current research aimed to explore the relationship between attachment styles (distal variables) and aggressive behaviour on the road, hypothesizing the mediation effect of mentalization. Then, a sample of 469 drivers (Mage = 35.60, SDage = 12.38; 66.1% female) taken from the general Spanish population completed a set of measures about their attachment styles (secure, anxious, avoidant, and disorganized), mentalization (alexithymia, mindful attention, empathy, and emotion recognition), and aggressive behaviour on the road (verbal, physical, vehicle-use related, displaced, and adaptive aggression). The results showed that driving aggression variables were significantly associated with self-sufficiency attachment style, as well as with empathy, alexithymia, and mindful attention. A further SEM analysis suggested that mentalization did not mediate in the relationship between self-sufficiency and driving aggression, but significant indirect effects were obtained in the case of the association between preoccupation attachment style and each one of the ways of aggression. Clinical implications of the results are discussed, in terms of the possible effectiveness of mentalization-based therapies to reduce aggression on the road, especially those which refer to alexithymia and mindful attention.