French transcultural validation of the Compliance with Safety Behavior Scale

Preventive behavior of workers is a major determinant of occupational health and safety performance of an organization. The measure of this concept is a challenge with French-speaking workers as there is no existing French validated tool.

The main objective of this research was to realize a French transcultural validation of the Compliance with Safety Behavior Scale (CSBS).

Steps of parallel translations, reverse translation and pre-test were conducted before the administration of the CSBS to 195 participants. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted; Cronbach's Alpha coefficients were calculated for each subscale; and intra-class correlation coefficients were calculated for each item.

Exploratory factor analyses support a three-factor structure explaining 53.44 % of the variance and confirmatory factor analyses validate that the measuring tool reflects three distinct factors, which are 1) compliance with safety rules and procedures, 2) participation and initiatives related to prevention, and 3) concern for social and physical environment. Results demonstrate that internal consistency is satisfying for two subscales (0.80 < α< 0.82) and that eight items are highly reliable (0.71 < r < 0.99, p < 0.01).

The French version of the CSBS represents a valid and reliable tool allowing its use both for research and for clinical practice.