How Foreman Safety Leadership Influences Worker Safety Behavior: An Empirical Study from a Developmental Psychology Perspective

In recent years, the construction industry in China has witnessed a persistently high death toll, and human unsafe behavior is the main cause of accidents. Foremen, as key frontline managers on construction sites, play a critical role in enhancing workers’ safety behavior through effective safety leadership. However, workers’ psychological willingness to improve safety behavior is often restricted by negative social relationships and unhealthy interaction patterns caused by foreman’s safety leadership. This study aims to investigate worker–foreman interactions from the perspective of developmental psychology and provide novel insights into the psychological mechanisms through which safety leadership influences safety behavior. Empirical studies were conducted on multiple construction projects, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed with 513 valid responses to examine the relationships between foreman safety leadership, worker–foreman attachment, and worker safety behavior. The results revealed that foreman safety leadership, including leading by example, participative decision-making, informing, and showing concern, significantly reduced workers’ attachment avoidance. Attachment avoidance served as a mediating variable, negatively impacting workers’ safety behavior. The effect of attachment anxiety was found to be nonsignificant in the model. Based on these findings, this paper offers valuable insights into the underlying causes of workers’ behavior choices and the mechanism of safety leadership from an individual psychological standpoint, highlighting the importance of integrating psychological and behavioral theories to assess the interpersonal relationship quality in safety management practice across the globe. This study shifts the perspective of safety leadership and behavior studies from a macrolevel approach to a microlevel perspective, providing practical suggestions for integrating attachment theory into safety assessment and developing targeted safety leadership interventions.