Long-Term Effects of Employer-Based Programs to Motivate Safety Belt Use

Details

• Creators:
  Geller, E. Scott, 1942- ; Lehman, Galen R. ; Rudd, James, 1959- ; Kalsher, Michael J. ; Streff, Frederick M. (Frederick Michael), 1960-
• Corporate Creators:
  Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Psychology Dept.
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Employers Impact Studies Manual Safety Belts Motivation Safety Programs
• Publication/ Report Number:
  DOT-HS-807-111 ; NTIS-PB87197679
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.21949/1525242
• Resource Type:
  Research Paper
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Edition:
  Final report
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Abstract:
  This report reviews the procedures and results of 28 different programs that increased employees' use of vehicle safety belts at ten work settings (with 141 to 6,727 employees) ranging from a minimum long-term gain of 12% over baseline to a maximum gain of 285%. A total of 244,543 vehicle observations were made to assess shoulder belt use before, during, and after particular behavior change strategies. Several program evaluations included follow-up observations from six months to 18 months after the safety belt campaign ended. Four basic types of employer-based programs were compared with regard to both immediate and long-term impact, including: 1) direct and immediate rewards, 2) direct and delayed rewards, 3) indirect and delayed rewards, and 4) awareness/commitment strategies that involved no extrinsic rewards. Each program was practical for its particular location and substantially increased the wearing of safety belts by targeted employees. In fact, only the indirect programs failed to double safety belt use, at least over the short term (i.e., a month or so). Safety belt use declined markedly when the programs were terminated but post-program levels rarely got as low as pre-program baseline. In other words, long term residual effects were found for practically every program, and consistent with theories of intrinsic motivation. and minimal justification, the amount of residual impact was greater for those programs that did not involve extrinsic rewards. Five conclusions are particularly important and provocative: 1) Safety belt use can be prominently increased at corporations and institutions with practical cost-effective procedures, 2) Significant residual effects of safety belt promotion remain long after program termination, 3) Gains in safety belt use can be increased with intermittent programs, 4) Further research is needed to determine optimal scheduling of various program strategies for response maintenance and generalization, and 5) Advantages and disadvantages of using extrinsic rewards vs. no rewards for safety belt promotion requires special programmatic attention.
• Content Notes:
  1 v. (various pagings) : ill.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  DTNH22-85-C-07301
• Collection(s):
  NHTSA - Behavioral Safety Research
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:bab0738bebc83e1759a279b17ba7cfc392a2d92c1cbb06d9da51a28c53248011
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/1458/dot_1458_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.91 MB ]