Abstract
While farm safety researchers have seldom considered the association between farm parents’ background and their children’s safety, researchers who have compared first- and multi-generation farmers have found differences that may shape safety outcomes. We draw on the farm safety and family farm bodies of literature and a survey of 203 United States farm parents to assess the role of farming background in farm children risk exposure. Exploratory in nature, the bivariate analysis revealed no statistically significant differences between first- and multi-generation farmers in children injury, agricultural safety perceptions, knowledge, and practices but revealed differences in key demographic characteristics and parenting styles. A range of factors likely explain these findings with meso- and macro-level factors likely impacting farm parents’ ability to adopt safety practices. In contrast to the emphasis on knowledge and behaviors, we call for the integration of lived realities in farm safety research and to do so in a way that connects realities and choices to larger contexts. We also call on the need to expand the toolkit of interventions to address meso- and macro-level factors. A shift towards addressing social and economic conditions in agriculture could reduce farm children’s injuries while supporting the sustainability of farm labor systems.
Highlights
In the United States of America (USA), farm children are exposed to significantly more risks of injury and fatality than the general population [1,2,3,4]
The high-risk exposure of farm children compared to children in the general population has been explained by several key differences: the overlap of farm children’s home with their parents’ worksite and federal labor laws that permit children to work on their parents’ farm at any age and that permit children younger than 10 to work on non-family-owned farms if the farm is exempt from paying federal minimum wage [7,8,9,10,11,12]
Our data are from a survey of farm parents in PA and WI aimed at understanding their attitudes, parenting styles, and practices towards the safety of their children
Summary
About 60% of agricultural-related injuries are sustained by nonworking, by-standing children who live on farms [1]. In early stages of the farm business, which have traditionally overlapped with the birth and early years of their children, these farm families are more likely to be in vulnerable positions due to high financial demands [15,18,19,20,21]. These high financial demands may limit farm parents’. In contrast to the emphasis on knowledge and behaviors, we call for the integration of lived realities in farm safety research and to do so in a way that connects realities and choices to larger contexts
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