Characterizing the relationship between personality traits and safety motivation among construction workers

Injury rates in the construction industry have been high. Losses from a construction accident are not limited to the high expenses of the delay in construction and the compensations for the injured workers, sometimes even the worker's life. The worker's unsafe behaviors have been the direct cause of an accident, and it is urgent to reduce them effectively. This study examines the relationships between personality traits, psychological needs, and safety motivation. It attempts to provide evidence and support for using personality traits and psychological needs in improving practical construction safety interventions. First, the constructs for personality traits, psychological needs, and safety motivation have been contextualized for application in the construction industry. Second, hypotheses about the relationships among the three constructs were established based on the literature, and a social survey was conducted to collect data for testing the hypotheses. Third, structural equation modeling was used to investigate the association between the three key constructs. The study found that conscientiousness is associated with social identity and intrinsic safety motivation, and extraversion is related to the worker's self-efficacy and extrinsic motivation. Openness to experience is positively associated with work autonomy and self-efficacy; conscientiousness is positively related to social identity, as well as extraversion to self-efficacy, agreeableness to work autonomy, and neuroticism to self-efficacy. The findings of this study contribute toward a better understanding of how personality accounts for differences in psychological needs and safety motivation and how these differences can be used in customized safety interventions. This study guides using personality traits in promoting safety motivation and shows that assessing personality traits can be a helpful tool in designing customized safety interventions.