Improving the Safety Performance of Nigeria Construction Workers: A Social Ecological Approach

This study applied the principles of social ecological model in developing a safety performance improvement framework in Nigeria construction industry. When the data collected through questionnaires distributed to the construction workers were statistically analysed using Pearson Product Moment correlation, the study found that safety behaviour intervention factors were positively correlated with safety performance. The correlation coefficient (r) ranges from 0.9713 (for community attributes) to 0.9991 (for interpersonal attributes), all of which were statistically significant at 5% significance level and the degree of freedom of 3 (i.e. p<0.05 in all cases). The coefficient of determination also ranges from 94.34% (for community attributes) to 99.82% (for interpersonal attributes). This represented the amount of safety performance improvement that would be achieved when behaviour intervention were positively applied, and translated to the percentage of accident reduction on site. Based on this result, social ecological model of safety performance improvement (SEM-SPI) framework was developed. The framework involved four implementation strategic steps through which it could be applied. This framework would be used to model the behaviour of construction workers towards behaving safely. The study recommended a practical application of the framework so as to improve the safety performance of construction workers.