Safety awareness, attitudes, and behaviors among university students in Saudi Arabia: implications for pre-employment safety readiness

BackgroundSafety culture supports safe learning environments and is widely regarded as a determinant of safety practice, yet evidence among university students in Saudi Arabia remains limited. Because students represent the future workforce in safety-sensitive fields such as healthcare, engineering, and science, characterizing their safety awareness, attitudes, and behaviors is relevant to occupational health practice. This study assessed these three domains among students at a single private university in Riyadh and identified demographic factors associated with them.MethodsA single-center cross-sectional survey was conducted among a convenience sample of 370 undergraduate and graduate students at Alfaisal University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, using a previously validated 19-item questionnaire assessing safety awareness and attitudes (12 items) and safety behaviors (7 items). Descriptive statistics and multivariable generalized linear model (GLM) analyses identified demographic factors independently associated with each domain. Findings are discussed in relation to pre-employment safety readiness; workplace safety behavior and performance were not measured.ResultsMost participants were aged 18–22 years (76.2%), female (62.2%), and undergraduate (86.2%). Mean scores were 3.44 ± 0.71 for safety awareness and attitudes and 3.63 ± 0.69 for safety behavior. Female students scored significantly higher than male students on both safety awareness and attitudes (β = 0.27, 95% CI: 0.12 to 0.42; p = 0.0006) and safety behavior (β = 0.23, 95% CI: 0.08 to 0.38; p = 0.002). Non-Saudi students scored significantly higher than Saudi students on both safety awareness and attitudes (β = 0.27, 95% CI: 0.10 to 0.44; p = 0.001) and safety behavior (β = 0.19, 95% CI: 0.03 to 0.36; p = 0.010). Adjusted models accounted for a small proportion of variance (R2 = 0.082 and 0.070, respectively). Age, academic level, marital status, and college affiliation were not significantly associated with either outcome.ConclusionsUniversity students showed generally positive yet moderate safety awareness, attitudes, and behaviors. Gender and nationality were the only variables that reached statistical significance in the adjusted models, and the associated effects were small. Because subsequent workplace safety readiness and performance were not measured, these findings describe students at one point in time and do not demonstrate future occupational behavior. They identify pre-workforce groups with lower current scores and provide baseline, hypothesis-generating evidence for multicenter and longitudinal studies in Saudi Arabia.