Safety beliefs and safe behavior among midwestern college students

PROBLEM: This study investigated the impact of safety beliefs on safe behavior and the effect of age, gender, class standing, and geographic region on these beliefs and behaviors. It also compares the level of safety beliefs and safe behavior of Midwestern college students in 1993 to those in 2002. METHOD: A total of 1,059 undergraduate students at four Midwestern universities completed the 33-item questionnaire developed by Crowe (J. Saf. Res. 26 (1995) 187) during the spring semester of 2002. RESULTS: Significant main effects for gender and age on safety beliefs and safe behavior were found as well as a significant interaction between gender and age for both outcome variables. The regression model with the independent variables of personal responsibility and gender yielded a multiple R of.58, which explained 34% of the variance of the self-reported safe behavior. Midwestern college students in 2002 were found less safety-conscious in terms of self-reported safety beliefs and safe behavior than those in 1993. DISCUSSION: The findings indicate that safety education of adolescents and young adults in the United States has not been effective, at least for the last decade, or today's social and school environment is less conducive to the students' safe behavior and beliefs than a decade ago. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Proactive multidisciplinary approaches to enhance safe behavior and beliefs of young adults should be made based on critical evaluation of current approaches.