China Safety Science Journal ›› 2026, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (1): 42-49.doi: 10.16265/j.cnki.issn1003-3033.2026.01.1116

• Safety Science Theories and Methods • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Mechanisms underlying unsafe behaviors among older miners based on IMB model

TIAN Fangyuan1,2,3(), LI Wenqi1,2,3,**(), XIE Xuecai4,5, QIU Weishuai1,2,3, LI Hongxia1,2,3   

  1. 1 School of Management, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an Shaanxi 710054, China
    2 Xi'an Key Laboratory of Human Factors & Intelligence for Emergency, Xi'an Shaanxi 710054, China
    3 Research Center for Energy Economics and Management, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an Shaanxi 710054, China
    4 Institute of Public Safety Research, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
    5 Faculty of GeoEngineering, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China
  • Received:2025-09-08 Revised:2025-11-10 Online:2026-01-28 Published:2026-07-28
  • Contact: LI Wenqi

Abstract:

To address the structural safety risks in the workforce arising from the increasing proportion of older miners in the mining industry, this study investigated the causal mechanisms underlying unsafe behaviors among older miners. Drawing on the IMB model, a SEM was developed to examine the causal pathways of miners' unsafe behaviors, and multi-group analysis was employed to compare the path coefficient differences between older and younger miners. The results indicate that knowledge and experience factors such as educational attainment and safety knowledge, as well as psychological characteristic factors including safety attitudes, accident experience, mental health, job burnout, and risk attitudes, have significant effects on miners' unsafe behaviors. Notably, work ability mediates both the pathway from knowledge and experience to unsafe behaviors and the pathway from psychological characteristics to unsafe behaviors. In addition, risk attitudes, mental health, job burnout, educational attainment, and safety knowledge exert stronger influences on unsafe behaviors among older miners compared to their younger counterparts.

Key words: information-motivation-behavioral skills (IMB) model, older miners, work ability, unsafe behavior, causal mechanisms, structural equation model (SEM)

CLC Number: