Background & Objective: Driving and providing services to passengers is not a new topic, but providing these services by online operators is relatively new. The analysis of traffic accidents has shown that the development of technical methods and driving equipment has not effectively reduced injuries and accidents. Human factors, including drivers’ mental health still play a significant role. Therefore, behavioral and psychological evaluation of human resources of any group, especially those directly related to the client, is essential. Considering that the relationship between mental health and driving behaviors is significant and requires comprehensive psychological studies, many researchers in developed countries have studied driving behavior. Still, little research has been done on behavior in developing countries such as Iran and there is a research gap in this field. So, the present study was conducted to design and develop a mental health questionnaire for drivers working for online taxi operators.
Methods: The present study was has an instrumentation design with standardization. The research was conducted in two parts: qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative section was dedicated to preparing and compiling the research questionnaire. We studied all books, articles, and dissertations related to mental health, especially drivers’ mental health. In the second step, the relevant data were extracted by thematic analysis techniques and driver –related mental health components. This process was continued until data saturation. The validity and reliability of the “Online Taxi Driver Mental Health Questionnaire” were examined in the quantitative section. The statistical population consisted of taxi drivers working for online operators in Tehran City, Iran. To determine the content validity, the content validity ratio (CVR) and content validity index (CVI) were employed. To evaluate the construct validity and determine the factor structure of the study tool, exploratory factor analysis was performed. The Cronbach alpha coefficient was calculated to determine the internal consistency on 311 completed questionnaires. To evaluate the reliability via the test –retest method, 50 drivers who had responded to the questionnaire in the previous stage were asked to complete the questionnaire again after two weeks. The retest coefficient was calculated using the obtained data. The significance level in the tests was considered 0.05.
Results: Results based on CVR showed that questions 5, 6, 8, 21, 28, 33, 43, and 49 were unnecessary. The CVR for 46 items of the questionnaire ranged from 0.60 to 1%. CVI was estimated to be 0.70. Exploratory factor analysis was used to evaluate the construct validity. Considering that the KMO value was 0.918 and the significance level of the Bartlett test was 0.001, it was permissible to continue and use other stages of factor analysis. The results of factor analysis showed that this questionnaire includes seven factors and the total cumulative variance of the factors was 58.75%. According to the factor load of questions, there were six questions for the stress tolerance factor, six questions for the impulse control factor, five questions for the emotional stability factor, five questions for the effective communication factor, seven questions for the flexibility factor, six questions for the conscientiousness factor, and six questions for the anger management factor. The Cronbach alpha coefficient for questions ranged from 0.71 to 0.88; it ranged from 0.83 to 0.90 for subscales, and 0.85 for the whole scale. The coefficient of test interval for subscales ranged from 0.69 to 0.84, and the coefficient of test interval of the whole scale was 0.66.
Conclusion: The results showed that the “Online Taxi Driver Mental Health Questionnaire” has acceptable validity and reliability. Accordingly, this questionnaire can assess the mental health of drivers working in online taxi companies.