Individual safety performance in the construction industry: Development and validation of two short scales

▶ Short measures of safety compliance and participation were developed for use in construction. ▶ Two field studies were conducted and provide evidence of the measures’ reliability and validity. ▶ Safety compliance and participation were negatively related to occupational injuries. ▶ Safety compliance had a stronger negative relationship with pain than safety participation. In the current research a short measure of safety performance is developed for use in the construction industry and the relationships between different components of safety performance and safety outcomes (e.g., occupational injuries and work-related pain) are explored within the construction context. This research consists of two field studies. In the first, comprehensive measures of safety compliance and safety participation were shortened and modified to be appropriate for use in construction. Evidence of reliability and validity is provided. Both safety compliance and safety participation were negatively related to occupational injuries, yet these two correlations were not statistically different. In the second study, we investigated the relationships between these two components of safety performance and work-related pain frequency, in addition to replicating Study 1. Safety compliance had a stronger negative relationship with pain than safety participation. Implications for research are discussed.