Skip to main content

Physical and Psychosocial Safety Climate Scales: Psychometric Evidence and Invariance Measurement in a Portuguese Sample

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health II

Abstract

Accident prevention is one of the key rules for workplace safety, and the safety climate has been linked to the possibility of influencing not only the safety behavior of workers but also the occurrence of accidents. Thus, this study aims to present the psychometric evidence of the physical and psychosocial safety climate scales in a Portuguese sample. From a sample of 844 participants, 505 men and 339 women, aged between 17 and 68 years (M = 37.09, SD = 10.57), the results show that the one-factor solution yielded the best fit to the data with acceptable reliability in both scales. The invariance measure between professions was only observed in the psychosocial safety climate scale, thus alerting to the susceptibility to different professional populations of the physical safety climate scale. Understanding the safety climate is critical to reducing occupational disease, injuries and accidents, and further study should deepen the psychometric qualities of both scales.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 219.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 279.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 279.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Ajslev, J., Dastjerdi, E., Dyreborg, J., Kines, P., Jeschke, K., Sundstrup, E., Jakobsen, M., Fallentin, N., Andersen, L.: Safety climate and accidents at work: cross-sectional study among 15,000 workers of the general working population. Saf. Sci. 91, 320–325 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Bentler, P., Wu, E.: EQS for Windows User’s Guide. Multivariate Software Inc, Encino (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Bronkhorst, B.: Behaving safely under pressure: the effects of job demands, resources, and safety climate on employee physical and psychosocial safety behavior. J. Saf. Res. 55, 63–72 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Bronkhorst, B., Tummers, L., Steijn, B.: Improving safety climate and behavior through a multifaceted intervention: results from a field experiment. Saf. Sci. 103, 293–304 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Chen, F.: Sensitivity of goodness of fit indices to lack of measurement invariance. Struct. Equ. Model. 14, 464–504 (2007)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  6. Chen, Y., McCabe, B., Hyatt, D.: Impact of individual resilience and safety climate on safety performance and psychological stress of construction workers: a case study of the Ontario construction industry. J. Saf. Res. 61, 167–176 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. De Andrade, A., Moraes, T., Tosoli, A., Wachelke, J.: Burnout, clima de segurança e condições de trabalho em profissionais hospitalares. Revista Psicologia: Organizações e Trabalho 15(3), 233–245 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  8. DeJoy, D.: Behavior change versus culture change: divergent approaches to managing workplace safety. Saf. Sci. 43(2), 105–129 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2005.02.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Dollard, M., Bakker, A.: Psychosocial safety climate as a precursor to conducive work environments, psychological health problems, and employee engagement. J. Occup. Organ. Psychol. 83(3), 579–599 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Finney, S., DiStefano, C.: Non-normal and categorical data in structural equation modeling. In: Hancock, G., Mueller, R. (eds.) Structural Equation Modeling: A Second Course, pp. 269–314. Information Age Publishing, Greenwich (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Fishbein, M., Ajzen, I.: Predicting and Changing Behavior: The Reasoned Action Approach. Taylor & Francis Group, New York (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Hall, G., Dollard, M., Coward, J.: Psychosocial safety climate: development of the PSC-12. Int. J. Stress Manage. 17(4), 353–383 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Huang, Y.H., Ho, M., Smith, G.S., Chen, P.Y.: Safety climate and self-reported injury: assessing the mediating role of employee safety control. Accid. Anal. Prev. 38(3), 425–433 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Huang, Y-h., Sinclair, R., Lee, J., McFadden, A., Cheung, J., Murphy, L.: Does talking the talk matter? Effects of supervisor safety communication and safety climate on long haul truckers´safety performance. Accid. Anal. Prev. 117, 357–367 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Jimmieson, N., Tucker, M., With, K., Liao, J., Campbell, M., Brain, D., Page, K., Barnett, A., Graves, N.: The role of time pressure and different psychological safety climate referents in prediction of nurses’ and hygiene compliance. Saf. Sci. 82, 29–43 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Kim, K., Park, S., Lim, H., Cho, H.: Safety climate and occupational stress according to occupational accidents experience and employment type in shipbuilding industry of Korea. Saf. Health Work 8(3), 290–295 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Kvalheim, S., Antonsen, S., Haugen, S.: Safety climate as an indicator for major accident risk: can we use safety climate as an indicator on the plant level? Int. J. Disaster Risk Reduction 18, 23–31 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Melo, E., Sousa, C., Sousa, A., Gonçalves, G.: Clima de segurança física e burnout: Efeitos nos comportamentos de segurança física dos enfermeiros. In: Arezes, P.M., Baptista, J.S., Barroso, M.P., Carneiro, P., Cordeiro, P., Costa, N., Melo, R.B., Miguel, A.S., Perestrelo, G. (eds.) International Symposium on Occupational Safety and Hygiene—Proceedings Book of the SHO2018, pp. 28–30. SPOSHO, Guimarães (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Muñiz, J., Elosua, P., Hambleton, R.: Directrices para la traducción y adaptación de los tests. Psicothema 25(2), 151–157 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Olds, D., Aiken, L., Cimiotti, J., Lake, E.: Association of nurse work environment and safety climate on patient mortality: a cross-sectional study. Int. J. Nurs. Stud. 74, 155–161 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Olsen, E.: Exploring the possibility of a common structural model measuring associations between safety climate factors and safety behaviour in health care and the petroleum sectors. Accid. Anal. Prev. 42(5), 1507–1516 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Seo, D., Torabi, M., Blair, E., Ellis, N.: A cross-validation of safety climate scale using confirmatory factor analytic technique. J. Saf. Res. 35(4), 427–445 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Silla, I., Gamero, N.: Psychological safety climate and professional driver`s well-being: the mediating role of time pressure. Transp. Res. Part F: Traffic Psychol. Behav. 53, 84–92 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Smith, G., Huang, Y.-H., Ho, M., Chen, P.: The relationship between safety climate and injury rates across industries: need to adjust for injury hazards. Accid. Anal. Prev. 38(3), 556–562 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Smith, T., Eldridge, F., DeJoy, D.: Safety-specific transformational and passive leadership influences on firefighter safety climate perceptions and safety behavior outcomes. Saf. Sci. 86, 92–97 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Tabachnick, B., Fidell, L.: Using Multivariate Statistics, 4th edn. Allyn & Bacon, Needham Heights (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Zohar, D.: Safety climate in industrial organizations: theoretical and applied implications. J. Appl. Psychol. 65(1), 96–102 (1980)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to António Sousa .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Sousa, C., Gonçalves, G., Sousa, A. (2020). Physical and Psychosocial Safety Climate Scales: Psychometric Evidence and Invariance Measurement in a Portuguese Sample. In: Arezes, P., et al. Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health II. Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, vol 277. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41486-3_61

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41486-3_61

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-41485-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-41486-3

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics