Developing an Effective Tool for Teaching Teens about Workplace Safety

Paid employment is an important feature of adolescent life. Too often, it has negative health consequences, including more than 200,000 workplace injuries to 14 to 17 year olds every year. Training teens about occupational safety is part of an overall strategy to address this problem. When the project described in this article began, there were few curricula for teaching teens basic occupational safety information, and there was little research on the most effective way to deliver this information. Project staff sought to fill these gaps in resources and knowledge. They conducted formative research to determine teen knowledge and attitudes about workplace safety and about child labor laws, teens' comfort with voicing concerns at work, and the type of training they received. Staff also interviewed educators and pilot-tested a draft curriculum to determine format and content appropriate to trainers' time constraints and levels of knowledge. In response to the findings, project staff developed curricula with activities addressing hazards in workplaces, prevention strategies, child labor laws, and how to communicate effectively about workplace concerns. Activities were created to be interactive and fun, and instructor guidance was presented concisely but with sufficient background information for someone with limited knowledge of occupational health and safety.