Personality traits such as Impulsivity and Sensation seeking are associated with aggressive and/or risky driving behaviour. Understanding the influence of these traits in the driving task is important to perform a more comprehensive study of road trauma, which is an increasing public health and economic concern.

To study the reliability and the construct validity of the Portuguese version of impulsive sensation seeking scale (ImpSS) using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (EFA and CFA).

747 participants [417 (55.8%) women; mean age = 42.13 ± 12.349 years; mean driving license years = 21.30 ± 11.338; mean years of regular driving = 20.33 ± 11.328] answered an online survey which included this scale, and other socio-demographic information. Inclusion criteria were: driving license and regular driving for at least three years and age lower than 75 years old. The total sample was randomly divided in two sub-samples, with sample A (n = 373) being used to perform EFA, and sample B to perform CFA.

The most acceptable factor model for ImpSS scale was the two-factor model found with EFA, excluding items 4, 6, 7 and 10 (χ2/df = 2.13; TLI = .90; CFI = .92; RMSEA = .05, P = .211). The internal consistency analysis resulted in: Sensation seeking, α = .79; Impulsivity, α = .76; total ImpSS score, α = .82.

These findings suggest that the ImpSS Scale is a valid and reliable measure to assess those personality traits in the Portuguese drivers.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.