Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

An assessment of the safety attitudes of college students following completion of a first aid course

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  • This study investigated the effect of first aid instruction on college students' attitudes toward safety. It evolved from previous studies of the relationship between first aid and accidents in Canada and the United Kingdom. These earlier studies were concerned with the effect of first aid training on accident rates. The current research concentrated on the effect of first aid instruction on safety attitudes. The sample consisted of 149 students (aged 18-24 years), without previous college level first aid or safety-related courses, enrolled in two lower division health courses at the University of Oregon, spring term, 1979. The 79 experimental subjects were students enrolled in two sections of First Aid-HE 260; the control subjects were 70 students enrolled in Personal Health-HE 250 (large section). A Pretest-Post test Control Group Design was employed in this study. The pretest was administered to subjects at the beginning of spring term to assess their attitudes toward safety prior to treatment. This pretest consisted of a biographical information section, the Home Safety Attitude Scale, and the Traffic Safety Attitude Scale. Following treatment, the Home and Traffic Safety Attitude Scales were administered again as the post test. Eight null hypotheses were generated for this study. The first seven hypotheses were concerned with the effect of treatment group, gender, social position, and combinations of these factors on safety attitudes. Hypothesis eight tested the relationship between the experimental subjects' reason for taking the first aid course and their attitudes toward safety. Two three-way analyses of covariance were employed to test hypotheses one through seven. Hypothesis eight was tested by two one-way analyses of variance. The .05 level of significance was used to evaluate the F-ratios. One significant finding emerged from hypothesis testing: gender had a main effect on subjects' adjusted post test traffic safety attitude scores. Female students had significantly more positive traffic safety attitudes than male students. There was no significant gender effect, however, on subjects' adjusted post test home safety attitude scores. All other hypotheses were retained, indicating that first aid instruction, social position, and reason for taking the first aid course did not have a significant effect on college students' attitudes toward safety. The results of this study may provide background data for subsequent investigations into the outcomes of first aid instruction. Before sound conclusions can be reached regarding the effect of first aid instruction on safety attitudes, additional research is needed. The following steps are suggested based on the nonsignificant findings and the significant finding of this study: 1. Replicating the study using a completely randomized design. 2. Sampling of a different population. A suggested population would be workers (excluding high-risk occupations) because they are in close proximity to accidents and their consequences. 3. Developing and validating a measure of general safety attitudes and safety-related attitudes. 4. Investigating separate traffic safety education approaches for males and females. 5. Conducting a comparative investigation into the effects of first aid instruction on attitudes toward: injury, first aid, safety, risk, and danger. 6. Investigating the effect of the type of first aid course on safety attitudes.
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