Citation

Guerin RJ, Okun AH, Barile JP, Emshoff JG, Ediger MD, Baker DS. Prev. Sci. 2019; 20(4): 510-520.

Affiliation

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1090 Tusculum Ave. MS C-10, Cincinnati, OH, 45226, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11121-019-01008-2

PMID

30904978

Abstract

US adolescents experience a higher rate of largely preventable job-related injuries compared with adults. Safety education is considered critical to the prevention of these incidents. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a foundational curriculum from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Talking Safety, to change adolescents' workplace safety and health knowledge, attitude, subjective norm, self-efficacy, and behavioral intention to engage in workplace safety actions. The study also examines the impact of teacher fidelity of curriculum implementation on student outcomes. A multilevel evaluation, based on a modified theory of planned behavior, was conducted in 2016 with 1748 eighth-graders in Miami-Dade, Florida. Post-intervention, students had statistically significant increases (p < .05) in mean scores across outcomes: workplace safety knowledge (34%), attitude (5%), subjective norm (7%), self-efficacy (7%), and behavioral intention (7%). Consistent with theory, gains in attitude (b = 0.25, p < .001), subjective norm (b = 0.07, p < .01), and self-efficacy (b = 0.55, p < .001) were associated with gains in behavioral intention. Higher levels of implementation fidelity were associated with significant gains across outcome measures: knowledge (b = 0.60, p < .001), attitude (b = 0.08, p < .01), subjective norm (b = 0.04, p < .001), self-efficacy (b = 0.07, p < .01) and behavioral intention (b = 0.07, p < .01).

FINDINGS demonstrate the effectiveness of Talking Safety, delivered with fidelity, at positively changing measured outcomes, and provide support for using this curriculum as an essential component of any school-based, injury prevention program for young workers.

Language: en

Keywords

Fidelity of implementation; Injury prevention; Middle school; Multilevel modeling; Occupational safety and health; Theory of planned behavior; Young worker