The Effect of Safety Education on Safety Behavior : Focusing on the Sequential Mediating Effect of Safety Attitude and Safety Motivation

The purpose of this study is to confirm the sequential mediation effect of safety attitude and safety behavior in the relationship between safety education and safety behavior. Through this, it provides implications for increasing safety behavior of researchers in institutions subject to the Laboratory Safety Act. To achieve the research purpose, an online survey was conducted in October 2023 targeting researchers in institutions subject to the Laboratory Safety Act. A total of 482 copies were collected, and statistical analysis was conducted using 430 copies in the end. Statistics were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 and SPSS Process Macro v3.5 to analyze the sequential mediation effect, and AMOS 23.0 was used to confirm the validity of the survey tool. The main research results are as follows. First, safety education had a positive effect on safety behavior and safety attitude, and safety attitude had a positive effect on safety behavior. Second, safety education and safety attitude had a positive effect on safety motivation, and safety motivation had a positive effect on safety behavior. Third, safety attitude and safety motivation were found to play a mediating role in the relationship between safety education and safety behavior. Fourth, safety education had a positive effect on safety attitude, safety attitude had a positive effect on safety motivation, and finally safety motivation had a positive effect on safety behavior. In summary, these results suggest that research sites need to conduct safety education efficiently by considering the characteristics of institutions and researchers. In particular, safety attitude and safety motivation were found to partially mediate the relationship between safety education and safety behavior, suggesting that it is important to conduct safety education programs to improve this.