Teen experiences of supervision and safety

A new pre-press article on teen employment crossed my desktop that a seemed appropriate to flag during the height of the shopping season. “Perceptions of supervision among injured and non-injured teens working in the retail or service industry” examines how perceived supervision related to teen injury rates in the US.

The key results are:

• 43% of teens reported injury in the past year (which is pretty much in line with Alberta data).
• Non-injured teens were more likely to have received safety training than injured teens (88% v 77%, p = .01).
• Only 69% of injured teens reported their injury (which is high, in my experience).
• Teens generally felt that they were solely at fault for their injury (66%).
• Only 30% of teens felt comfortable talking about safety issues with their boss (even though most knew that their boss could not fire them for raising safety issues).

Looking at supervision, I find the results a bit hard to parse. Teens who were injured were more likely to report supervisors who did not listen well and who did not ensure that teens understood workplace safety.

But which way does the causality run?

Are these factors causes of injury (because they reflect less safe workplaces)? Or are they ex post facto assessments by injured teens caused by the injury event? The study acknowledges this limitation.

Overall, an interest window into the world of teenage employment and how they view supervisors, safety and injury.

-- Bob Barnetson