Using social marketing to address barriers and motivators to agricultural safety and health best practices

Abstract

Social marketing is an intervention development strategy that pays considerable attention to barriers to and motivators for behavioral change or adoption of recommended behaviors. Barriers are obstacles that prevent individuals from changing or adopting behaviors and are often referred to as the "cons" or "costs" of doing something. Motivators, on the other hand, are factors that encourage individuals to change or adopt behaviors and are often referred to as the "pros," "benefits," or "influencing factors" of doing something. Importantly, social marketing does not target education or knowledge change as an end point; rather, it targets behavior change. Studies across several types of desired behaviors (e.g., smoking cessation, weight control, more exercise, sunscreen use, radon testing) using the Stages of Change model have found systematic relationships between stages of change and pros and cons of changing behavior. A review of literature identifies numerous research and intervention studies that directly reference social marketing in agricultural safety and health, studies that identify reasons why parents allow their children to be exposed to hazardous situations on the farm, and reasons why youth engage in risky behaviors, but only two studies were found that show evidence of systematically researching specific behavioral change motivating factors. The authors offer several suggestions to help address issues relating to social marketing and agricultural safety and health.