Life satisfaction, well-being and safe driving behaviour in undergraduate psychology students

- Age, gender and mileage of drivers accounted for 30% of the variance of the number of unwanted incidences.
- The happiness orientation of pleasure was positively related to number of unwanted incidences.
- The happiness orientations of meaning and engagement were negatively related to number of unwanted incidences.
- High levels of life satisfaction and well-being were related to self-reported safe driving behaviour.

This study used measures of three self-reported orientations to happiness (engagement, meaning, and pleasure), to examine whether any of the them related to the number of self-reported unwanted driving incidences (crashes, near misses and traffic fines). One hundred and sixty undergraduate Psychology students on a valid New Zealand driver licence were required to fill in the 'Good Life' questionnaire and complete a demographics questionnaire in regard to their age, gender, driving experience and number of unwanted incidences in the previous 12 months. The results showed that the happiness orientations of meaning and engagement correlated negatively and strongly with the number of incidences the drivers experienced in the previous year. The dimension of pleasure, however, indicated a positive correlation, revealing that the higher the participants rated on that dimension, the more likely they had unwanted driving incidences. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated first that mileage, gender and age groups accounted for a significant 30% of the variance in the number of unwanted incidences - on step 2, the variable 'meaning' (having revealed the strongest correlation with the number of incidences) was added to the regression equation and accounted for an additional and significant 21% of the variance in the number of incidences. Finally, on step 3, the variable 'intention to commit traffic violations' accounted for a further 13% of the incidences. The results indicate that high levels of happiness relating to life satisfaction and well-being, facilitate pro-social and adaptive behaviour and seem to safeguard drivers against committing deliberate traffic violations that would put them at serious risk.