Error communication in young farm workers: Its relationship to safety climate and safety locus of control

Abstract

Previous research has suggested that open communication about errors at work plays an important role in promoting occupational safety. The current study focused on error communication by young farm workers in the light of increasing concerns about young workers’ safety and the need to investigate its determinants. Specifically, we examined the effects of safety locus of control and safety climate on young workers’ communications about their errors in farm work. A cross-sectional telephone survey was administered to a randomly selected sample of adolescents, aged 13–18 years, who resided and worked on family farms in Colorado, United States. Responses from 244 young farm workers were analyzed. Our results indicated that young farm workers who reported having a high internal safety locus of control and perceived a positive safety climate were more likely to openly communicate their mistakes at work to their parents who owned the farms. Further, safety climate significantly buffered against the negative effects of external safety locus of control on error communication. These findings highlight the importance of individual and contextual factors in promoting farm safety and have implications for designing and implementing interventions to target young farm workers. They may also prove to be relevant to the error communication of young workers in other industries and occupations.

Keywords:

• agriculture
• young farm workers
• safety climate
• safety locus of control
• error communication
• farming

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Grant Number R01/CCR815547 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Preparation of this manuscript was supported by the Center to Protect Workers’ Rights (CPWR) as part of a cooperative agreement with the NIOSH (OH008307), as well as Occupational Health Psychology Training, NIOSH (1T42 OH009229-01). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NIOSH, and CPWR.