Abstract
Employing Chinese General Social Survey 2013 data (N = 678), this study examines the influences of migrant construction workers’ environmental risk perception (ERP) on their physical and mental health. The ERP of migrant construction workers is characterized by six dimensions: perceptions of air pollution, industrial waste pollution and noise pollution at working sites, and perceptions of domestic waste pollution, water pollution and food pollution at living sites. The results indicate that migrant construction workers with stronger ERP have better physical and mental health. The results also suggest the influences of ERP on the physical and mental health of migrant construction workers with different gender and age (<50 and ≥50 years) are heterogeneous. Perceptions of industrial waste pollution, noise pollution and domestic waste pollution significantly affect female workers’ physical health, but not that of male workers. The six dimensions of ERP all significantly influence male workers’ mental health, while except for domestic waste pollution perception, the other perceptions do not influence that of female workers. Perceptions of air pollution, domestic waste pollution, and water pollution significantly influence physical health of workers aged 50 and above, while those of ERP do not work on that of workers younger than 50. Perception of food pollution significantly influences mental health of workers younger than 50, but not that of workers aged 50 and above. The seemingly unrelated regression shows the results in this paper are robust.
Highlights
Risk exists universally across the world and may cause undesirable consequences
This study focuses on the influences of environmental risk perception (ERP) on the physical and mental health of a vulnerable group: migrant construction workers in China
This paper focuses on the heterogeneous influences of ERP on the physical and mental health of migrant construction workers in different gender and age groups
Summary
Risk exists universally across the world and may cause undesirable consequences. Risk perception has been described as people’s subjective and experiential judgements on the magnitudes or likelihoods of negative outcomes resulting from currently faced or anticipated risks [1,2,3]. The behaviors of individuals are mainly determined by self-cognition [4]. Compared with individuals with a lower level of risk perception, those with a higher level of risk perception are more willing to adopt self-protective intervention measures to defend against or avoid possible undesirable consequences [5]. Environmental pollution may affect individual health and is the main aspect of environmental risk. Based on people’s intuitions and experiences, environmental risk perception (ERP) can trigger either rejection or adoption of self-precautionary or self-protective health behaviors
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