Life satisfaction, risky and aggressive driving, and crash involvement: Evidence within a contextual-mediated framework

Road traffic crashes remain a critical public-health issue, with human factors implicated in the vast majority of incidents. This study applies the contextual-mediated model of Sümer to test whether life satisfaction, as a distal factor, relates to self-reported crash involvement indirectly through proximal behaviours (risky and aggressive driving). The survey responses of 4077 Spanish adults are analysed. Life satisfaction is assessed with the Satisfaction with Life Scale; risky driving captured any alcohol/drug-impaired driving (or riding with an impaired driver); aggressive driving was measured on a standardised four-item scale. Logistic and linear models adjusted for age, gender, exposure, education, marital status, and region show that higher life satisfaction is associated with lower risky driving (OR ≈ 0.70) and lower aggressive driving (≈ −0.14 SD). In crash models, the life-satisfaction coefficient is negative, and it is attenuated once proximal behaviours are added in the main specification. Moreover, Karlson-Holm-Breen decomposition indicates a substantive indirect component (Diff ≈ −0.054 in log-odds), with risky driving accounting for the larger share of mediation. Robustness checks using a median split of life satisfaction (Diff ≈ −0.081) and a licensed-driver subsample (Diff ≈ −0.066) show similar patterns, with the direct association becoming marginal/non-significant after including proximal factors. Findings highlight behavioural pathways and suggest complementing road-safety programmes targeting anger regulation and risky styles with initiatives that foster evaluative well-being to curb risky behaviours and reduce crashes in Spain. • Links between life satisfaction, driving behaviour and road crashes were studied. • Life satisfaction was considered a distal factor of road crashes. • Aggressive and risky driving were considered proximal factors of road crashes. • Link between life satisfaction and road crashes was mediated by driving behaviour. • Life satisfaction should be considered in targeted accident prevention policies.