Serial Mediation Effects of Driver Fatigue and Cognitive Impairment on the Relationship Between Occupational Stressors and Wellbeing Among Commercial Truck Drivers: A PLS-SEM Analysis

This study examines two primary research objectives: (1) to investigate the roles of work stress, logistics infrastructure, financial stress, and environmental stress as antecedent factors influencing the wellbeing of truck drivers in Thailand, and (2) to explore the mediating roles of driver fatigue, cognitive impairment, and accident risk in the relationship between antecedent factors and wellbeing. Data were collected from 534 Thai truck drivers through voluntary participation in an online survey utilizing a validated five-point Likert scale instrument with established reliability and validity. The data collected was analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings demonstrate that Work Stress, Financial Stress, and Environmental Stress constitute antecedent factors with direct effects on wellbeing. Driver fatigue, cognitive impairment, and accident risk function as complementary partial mediators in the relationships between work stress, environmental stress and wellbeing, while simultaneously serving as competitive partial mediators in the relationship between financial stress and wellbeing. Moreover, these three mediating variables collectively operate as full serial mediators in the relationship between logistic infrastructure and wellbeing. The results show that all antecedent factors significantly affect wellbeing, with financial stress having the strongest impact, followed by environmental stress. Together, these factors explain a substantial portion of wellbeing variance among Thai truck drivers.