Building a culture of safety: Teacher and peer impact on safety behaviors among vocational high school students

Abstract

There is an increased risk of workplace accidents for younger employees. Academic laboratories have demonstrated a higher prevalence of accidents. Occupational health and safety (OHS) education plays a central role in reducing the risk of accidents and aims to habituate safety behavior in educational settings. The current research aims to investigate the factors affecting students’ safety behaviors using a knowledge-attitude-behavior model within stimulus-organism-response frameworks. A quantitative and non-experimental study involved sending an electronic questionnaire to 959 Indonesian vocational high school students who had undergone half of their learning process in a workshop that put them at risk of accidents. A structural equation model was conducted on the data which showed that all variables in the model were valid and reliable. Teachers’ OHS leadership encourages students’ safety knowledge, attitudes and behaviors. Positive and noteworthy benefits to students' safety knowledge, attitude and behaviour are demonstrated by peer safety behaviours as indicated by similar results. Among the predictors, OHS knowledge had the greatest influence on students’ safety behavior. The current research findings provide evidence that supports the fact that student safety behavior follows the knowledge attitude behaviour model within the stimulus organism response framework.