This article explores farm parents' attitudes and practices regarding the employment, training and supervision of their children among a sample of 24 farm couples from southeastern Washington state. The goal was to gain a greater understanding of parental attitudes and practices in order to devise appropriate and meaningful efforts to improve the safety of children and adolescents involved in farm work. Demographic data regarding the farm families and their farm safety practices were collected through a short questionnaire, and parental attitudes and practices regarding the employment, training and supervision of their children were explored through open-ended, semi-structured interviews. The results suggest that farm parents have developed a logical and consistent set of beliefs and attitudes regarding the employment, training, and supervision of their children that is based in part on the belief that farm work is highly beneficial to their children's development. Safety interventions to reduce childhood farm injuries will have to acknowledge farm work as important and beneficial for children in order to maintain legitimacy and credibility. Nevertheless, because farm parents' practices regarding their children's employment reflect cultural beliefs and values regarding children and child-rearing, some recommended safety guidelines will be difficult to implement.

Using both qualitative and quantitative data, this article analyzes farm parents' attitudes towards the trustworthiness, usefulness, and use of advice from farm safety experts. The article evaluates four different perspectives on trust in expert: the Validity of Knowledge perspective, the Salient Values Similarity perspective, the Diffusion of Innovation perspective, and the Local Knowledge perspective. Among other factors, the results show that negative attitudes towards experts are strongly influenced by attitudes towards the validity of scientific knowledge vs. farm experience. They also show that experts who are more involved in farm production have higher levels of trust and usefulness. While all of the perspectives receive some degree of support, the results suggest that local knowledge and culture are critical in shaping attitudes towards experts. Attitudes towards experts are shaped not solely by expert characteristics but by the meanings and significance they assume in specific socio-cultural contexts.

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