Individual safety performance in the construction industry: development and validation of two short scales

In the current research a short measure of safety performance is developed for use in the construction industry and the relationships between different components of safety performance and safety outcomes (e.g., occupational injuries and work-related pain) are explored within the construction context. This research consists of two field studies. In the first, comprehensive measures of safety compliance and safety participation were shortened and modified to be appropriate for use in construction. Evidence of reliability and validity is provided. Both safety compliance and safety participation were negatively related to occupational injuries, yet these two correlations were not statistically different. In the second study, we investigated the relationships between these two components of safety performance and work-related pain frequency, in addition to replicating Study 1. Safety compliance had a stronger negative relationship with pain than safety participation. Implications for research are discussed.     

Roles of safety climate and shift work on perceived injury risk: a multi-level analysis

This study evaluated the relationship between employees’ work shift (i.e., day shift versus night shift) and perceptions of injury risk, and how the relationship is affected by company level safety climate and injury frequency. The results showed that night shift workers perceived a higher level of injury risk compared to day shift workers. Both company level safety climate and injury frequency played critical roles in predicting individual perceived work injury risk. Perception of injury risk of night shift workers was significantly lower when they perceived high-level rather than low-level safety climate. However, this pattern was not noticeable for day shift workers. These findings highlighted the importance of considering company level factors when attempting to understand the differences between day shift and night shift work on an individual's perception of injury risk.     

The effects of error management climate and safety communication on safety: A multi-level study

Work in the construction industry is considered inherently dangerous, despite the technological improvements regarding the safety of work conditions and equipment. To address the urgent need to identify organizational predictors of safety performance and outcomes among construction workers, the present study examined multi-level effects of two important indicators of safety climate, namely contractor error management climate and worker safety communication, on safety behavior, injury, and pain among union construction workers. Data were collected from 235 union construction workers employed by 15 contractors in Midwest and Northwest regions of the United States. Results revealed significant main effects for safety communication and error management climate on safety behaviors and pain, but not on injuries. Our findings suggest that positive safety communication and error management climate are important contributors to improving workplace safety. Specific implications of these results for organizational safety research and practice are discussed.     

Measurement equivalence and mean comparisons of a safety climate measure across construction trades

The use of safety climate measures for needs assessment and interventions has become increasingly popular. However, no research to date has examined whether the meaning and level of safety climate may differ across different groups of interest. This study used multi-group confirmatory factor analyses to investigate the measurement equivalence of a multidimensional safety climate measure across ten construction trade groups (N = 4725). In addition, observed mean differences in safety climate perceptions between trades were examined. Results revealed strong measurement equivalence of the safety climate measure across the construction trade groups. Further, significant mean differences were found between the ten trade groups on all four safety climate scales.     

Investigation of the effectiveness of a school-based suicide education program using three methodological approaches.

The study demonstrates how to conduct nonexperimental yet rigorous evaluation of suicide education programs when random assignment with control group design is not feasible under practical or ethical constraints. To achieve this goal, the authors show how rigorous evaluation of a school-based suicide education program (Raising Awareness of Personal Power [RAPP]) is conducted by means of three methodological approaches: the rolling group design, the internal referencing strategy, and the minimum competency approach. A total of 779 high school students in seven public high schools in Northern Colorado participated in the current study. Results based on the three approaches provide converging evidence that the RAPP program was effective not only in producing positive change in participants' knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy about suicide and suicide prevention, but also in reaching predetermined levels of knowledge and positive reactions to the program. Furthermore, the three approaches demonstrate practicality, usefulness, and rigorousness for future field evaluations if the formal experimental design could not be conducted in practice. Implications for program evaluation are further discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)