Work Safety Climate, Safety Behaviors, and Occupational Injuries of Youth Farmworkers in North Carolina

The aims of this project were to describe the work safety climate and the association between occupational safety behaviors and injuries among hired youth farmworkers in North Carolina (n = 87). We conducted personal interviews among a cross-sectional sample of youth farmworkers aged 10 to 17 years. The majority of youths reported that work safety practices were very important to management, yet 38% stated that supervisors were only interested in "doing the job quickly and cheaply." Few youths reported appropriate work safety behavior, and 14% experienced an injury within the past 12 months. In bivariate analysis, perceptions of work safety climate were significantly associated with pesticide exposure risk factors for rewearing wet shoes (P = .01), wet clothes (P = .01), and shorts (P = .03). Youth farmworkers perceived their work safety climate as being poor. Although additional research is needed to support these findings, these results strengthen the need to increase employer awareness to improve the safety climate for protecting youth farmworkers from harmful exposures and injuries.