Development and validation of a safety behavior scale for industrial workplaces

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health and Safety
• Psychometrics
• Industrial Psychology

Background:

• Leading indicators are crucial for evaluating safety performance in industrial environments.
• Safety behavior is a key leading indicator, necessitating a standardized measurement tool.
• Existing tools may lack the validity and reliability required for comprehensive assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a standardized questionnaire for assessing safety behavior.
• To provide a reliable instrument for measuring employee safety practices in industrial workplaces.
• To enhance the evaluation of safety performance through a robust leading indicator.

Main Methods:

• A 25-item preliminary questionnaire was developed based on a literature review.
• Face validity, content validity, construct validity, and reliability analyses were conducted.
• Smart-PLS version 3 was used for data analysis, including exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.

Main Results:

• A 22-item questionnaire demonstrated strong content validity (CVI > 0.78, CVR > 0.62).
• Exploratory factor analysis identified three dimensions of safety behavior, explaining 59.3% of variance.
• Confirmatory factor analysis validated the questionnaire structure, with excellent reliability (Composite Reliability = 0.93, Cronbach's α = 0.92).

Conclusions:

• The study successfully validated a 22-item questionnaire for measuring safety behavior.
• This tool is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing employee safety practices across various industries.
• The validated questionnaire can be utilized to improve safety performance evaluation and interventions.