In 1999, the North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks (NAGCAT) were published. Based on expert opinion and child development theories (but not empirical evidence), the Guidelines are intended to help parents (and other adult Care givers) in assigning developmentally-appropriate jobs to youth 7-18 years of age who work in agriculture. The effectiveness of these guidelines has yet to be fully evaluated -especially in regards to their work-related injury risk reduction potential. The overarching goal of the proposed research is to evaluate the effectiveness of the NAGCA T as an approach to the primary prevention of childhood agricultural injury. We are therefore proposing to conduct a randomized controlled trial having an experimental time series design, permitting a rigorous test of NAGCAT's effectiveness. We expect our findings to provide informative evidence-based answers to the following questions. First, to what extent can compliance with the NAGCA T be maximized through a theory-based dissemination strategy? Second, to what extent can compliance with the NAGCAT actually reduce the risk of work-related injury among youth exposed to agricultural hazards? Third, to inform future NAGCA T dissemination efforts, what parental characteristics are most strongly associated with maximal compliance? The panel's hypothesis is that hazard-exposed youth in households who receive messages about the NAGCA T based on Protection Motivation Theory will exhibit greater compliance / conformity to the NAGCAT and lower injury rates than youth in control households.
Specific Aims are: 1. Quantitatively assess the extent to which youth working conditions and safety behaviors are in compliance/conformity with the NAGCAT . 2. Evaluate the effectiveness of a dissemination strategy based on Protection Motivation Theory in terms of changes in youth working conditions and safety behaviors. 3. Quantify risk of work related injury among a sample of youth exposed to agricultural hazards. 4. Taking into account the experimental time series design of the proposed study, conduct statistical analyses to evaluate the functional relationship between adherence to the Guidelines and work related injury risk. 5. Identify parental characteristics and attitudes that most strongly predict high compliance / conformity with the NAGCAT.
| Ashida, Sato; Heaney, Catherine A; Kmet, Jennifer M et al. (2011) Using protection motivation theory and formative research to guide an injury prevention intervention: increasing adherence to the North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks. Health Promot Pract 12:396-405 |
