Impact of Safety Attitude on the Safety Behavior of Coal Miners in China

Most coal mine accidents are attributed to the unsafe behavior of miners. Adjusting the safety attitude and thus improving miners' safety behavior is important for accident prevention. However, the relationship between safety attitude and safety behavior in the coal mining industry has not been explored. The coal miners' safety attitude scale and safety behavior scale were used to analyze the impact of safety attitude on safety behavior and investigate the correlation between four dimensions of safety attitude and two kinds of safety behavior. The impact of demographic characteristics including age, length of service, and education level on safety attitude and safety behavior was also measured. A survey of miners at four coal mines in China resulted in 593 valid responses. The result indicates that safety attitude is not only positively related to safety behavior but also positively related to safety participation and safety compliance. From the four dimensions of safety attitude, the team safety climate directly affects safety participation and safety compliance. Management safety commitment, job stress, and fatalism are not significantly related to safety participation and safety compliance. The results show that age and length of service were slightly related to safety attitude, and the education level was not significantly related to safety attitude. Age, length of service and education level had no impact on safety behavior. The contribution of this study to the current literature is that the safety attitude of coal miners can positively affect safety behavior and can be improved by fostering a good team safety climate. Practical implications emphasize safety training and safety education, especially for young miners. Managers should reinforce safety commitment, provide adequate safety equipment, timely communicate with miners, and encourage miners to actively communicate with colleagues to improve safety behavior and prevent accident in the coal mining industry.