Understanding Trends in PTO Shielding Using Kelman's Processes of Change

Area of Science:

• Agricultural safety
• Behavioral science
• Social psychology

Background:

• Kelman's Processes of Change categorizes behavioral motivations into compliance, identification, and internalization.
• Understanding these motivations is crucial for promoting safety behaviors in agriculture.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the applicability of Kelman's model in explaining farmers' attitudes and behaviors toward power take-off (PTO) shielding.
• To identify factors influencing the adoption of safety practices in farming.

Main Methods:

• A survey was administered to 673 farmers across 14 New York counties.
• Participants' attitudes and behaviors regarding PTO shielding were assessed and classified using Kelman's three-stage model.

Main Results:

• Over 59% of farmers could be categorized by Kelman's model, with 79% falling into the internalization stage.
• A significant portion of farmers who did not use PTO shielding reported internalizing its importance (77%).

Conclusions:

• Kelman's model offers insights into farmer motivations for safety behaviors like PTO shielding.
• Challenges exist in aligning self-reported attitudes with actual behaviors and in accurately classifying individual motivations.
• Further research is needed to refine the application of behavioral change models in agricultural safety contexts.