SAFETY VALUES AND SAFE PRACTICES AMONG COLLEGE-STUDENTS

During the fall of 1993, a total of 1,126 students who were enrolled in elective health classes at eight Midwestern universities completed a questionnaire composed of 15 items related to safe practices and 18 items related to safety values. This study explored the effect that gender, class standing, and geographic region had on the participants' safe practices and safety values. As confirmed in earlier studies, females are more safety conscious than males. Further, class standing significantly affected the safety values of the participants, but had no significant effect on their safe practices. Geographic region did not have any significant influence on either the safe practices or the safety values of the participants. Safety values were a better predictor of a person's safe practices than the other three factors (gender, class standing, and geographic region) combined.