Association between Safety Self-Efficacy, Safety Perceived Control, and Safety Behavior in Employees of a Selected Steel Industry, Iran (2023)

Background: Individual factors influence safety behavior, especially personality and psychological variables.Self-efficacy and perceived control are among these psychological drivers that were less addressed in the industrial environments and work safety.In this regard, the present study was conducted to investigate the association between safety self-efficacy and safety perceived control with the dimensions of safety behaviors.Methods and Materials: This cross-sectional study was conducted in a steel industry in Yazd province during the spring of 2023.252 employees from different occupational groups (workers, supervisors, and production managers) were included in the study.Griffin and Neal's questionnaire was used to check the safety behavior dimensions (safety compliance and safety participation).Moreover, safety self-efficacy and safety perceived control were evaluated using Proactive-Safety Role Orientation Questionnaire (PRO-SAFE).To analyze the data, correlation, Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis test, and multiple linear regression model were used.SPSS-24 software was used to analyze data.Results: We found a positive and significant association between psychological drivers and safety behavior.The regression model showed that with a unit increase in the safety self-efficacy score, the mean score of safety compliance, and safety participation increased by 0.36 and 0.36, respectively.Furthermore, with a unit increase in the safety perceived control score, the mean score of safety compliance and safety participation increased by 0.41 and 0.44, respectively.Conclusion: Considering positive and significant association between psychological drivers and safety behavior, creating and promoting psychological drivers in the individuals can improve the level of safety in the workplace and reduce accidents.