Factors affecting unsafe behavior in construction projects: development and validation of a new questionnaire

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health and Safety
• Construction Management
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Construction safety is a complex issue.
• Evaluating factors contributing to unsafe behavior is crucial for prevention.
• Existing measures may not fully capture the nuances of construction site risks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a new instrument for assessing factors affecting unsafe behavior in the construction industry.
• To ensure the new measure possesses robust psychometric properties.
• To provide a tool for deeper investigation into the causes of construction worker accidents.

Main Methods:

• A questionnaire was developed using grounded theory principles from qualitative research.
• Measurement properties including face, content, construct, reliability, and discriminative validity were assessed.
• Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was employed to determine discriminating power and optimal cutoff scores.

Main Results:

• The instrument demonstrated an interpretable 12-factor structure explaining 61.87% of variance.
• High internal consistency (Cronbach's α=0.94) and stability (ICC=0.93) were achieved.
• ROC analysis indicated good discriminative power (AUC=0.80), with sensitivity=0.80 and specificity=0.75. The instrument differentiated safety performance across sites with varying accident histories.

Conclusions:

• The newly developed instrument is a valid, reliable, and sensitive tool for evaluating factors related to unsafe behavior in construction.
• This measure can significantly contribute to understanding the root causes of accidents.
• Implementation of this instrument is expected to enhance overall safety performance in the construction industry.