Why Parents Matter
Each Safety Diagnostics survey includes a question in the demographic section that asks respondents whether they are a parent. This question often draws a suspicious response – ’Is this an attempt to identify me?’.
The fact is that over the years that we have been carrying out climate surveys, the question about being a parent has been one of the strongest indicators for risk aversion. Whatever their other characteristics: age, gender or job type; parents are more risk averse than the rest of the population. There is a measurable difference in the way that parents respond to questions about risk and also to those about intervening in unsafe situations.
Knowing that this difference exists and how to measure it allows us to validate the results. It is a fixed point in the data analysis. Thus, if there is any question about the authenticity of the views expressed by sections of the workforce the ‘parent’ question can be used to prove the validity of the outcome. If (in very rare cases) questionnaires have been completed under duress, or fraudulently, the parental data will demonstrate this.
