Workers under the age of 25 have an increased risk of workplace violence compared to all workers combined. Given their predominant employment in the high-risk retail and service industries, the lack of violence prevention programs in these industries, and the fact that youth may be uniquely affected by workplace violence due to their ongoing physical and psychological development, young workers are a vulnerable population at risk. Our current understanding of workplace violence in this population largely comes from occupational injury surveillance data. However, data from these systems underestimate the prevalence of violence and lack information about perpetrators, event circumstances, psychological harms, distal consequences of violence (e.g., job loss, poor academic achievement) and exposure to workplace violence prevention training. Therefore, to adequately investigate workplace violence among youth, alternative methodological approaches are needed. We propose a national telephone survey with a representative sample of 1000 US youth 15-24 years of age to accomplish the following aims: 1) to estimate the prevalence of workplace violence victimization among young workers and characterize cases by employment-, worker-, and event-characteristics; 2) to characterize employer-provided workplace violence prevention training received by young workers; 3) to identify risk factors for workplace violence victimization among young workers; and 4) to describe the employment and educational consequences of workplace violence victimization among young workers and examine associations between these outcomes and worker and event characteristics. The proposed work addresses the NORA cross-sector program on Traumatic Injury (Goal 3: Reduce occupational injuries and deaths due to workplace violence; Goal 5: Reduce occupational injuries and deaths among high risk and vulnerable worker groups). It also addresses NORA's Service sector program (Goal 11: By 2015, reduce the frequency of workplace violence events by 20% in restaurants and food delivery services.) The following are the major contributions of the proposed study, several of which will directly contribute to the achievement of the above NORA goals: 1) this study will produce a more accurate estimate of workplace violence victimization prevalence among workers under age 25 than surveillance methods have been able to achieve; 2) it will provide the first workplace violence risk factor data focused on young worker populations; 3) it will provide details on the content and quantity of workplace violence training young workers receive from their employers; and 4) it will generate some of the first data on the more distal consequences that experiencing workplace violence can have on youth's employment and education. Near-term outputs from the proposed work will include presentations at national conferences, peer-reviewed publications, and access to the national survey data.
The proposed project is relevant to public health because young workers are predominantly employed in businesses at high risk for violence, and these types of businesses often lack comprehensive workplace violence prevention programs and training. Youth are still developing psychologically and cognitively and therefore, need more tailored approaches to workplace violence prevention and response than their older counterparts. Findings from the proposed study can help practitioners develop workplace violence prevention strategies targeted toward youth as well as programs to minimize the impact of workplace violence experienced by youth.
