The Impact of Safety Training on Safety Behavior Among Multinational Construction Workers: The Mediating Role of Responsibility and the Moderating Role of Nationality

The construction industry remains high-risk, and in Saudi Arabia, these risks are amplified by a multinational workforce. This study examines the relationship between safety training (ST) and two facets of safety behavior: safety compliance (SC) and safety participation (SP). It investigates whether this effect operates through individual responsibility (IR) and varies by nationality. A questionnaire was administered to 252 construction workers across large projects. Data were analyzed in SPSS using descriptive statistics, reliability tests, correlations, multiple regression, and PROCESS with 5000 bootstraps. ST was positively associated with SC but not with SP. IR was positively related to SC. Mediation analysis revealed partial mediation of the ST to SC link via IR, suggesting that training enhances compliance both directly and by strengthening a personal sense of responsibility. Nationality did not significantly moderate the ST to IR path or the direct effects of ST on behavior, suggesting broadly similar training mechanisms across national groups. These findings support the integration of responsibility-building elements into safety training to enhance compliance, while separate organizational strategies (e.g., participatory programs, leadership engagement) may be necessary to foster discretionary participation. Limitations include reliance on self-report measures, a cross-sectional design, and limited subgroup sizes in moderation analyses. Future research should employ longitudinal designs, refine the measurement of responsibility, and test additional moderators (e.g., language proficiency, education, tenure).