Abstract
Workers' health behaviour includes habits or actions related to physical exercise, nutrition, smoking, and drug or alcohol consumption. Unhealthy behaviour, and especially alcohol consumption, has been considered a source of accidents and injuries among construction workers. However, unhealthy behaviour can also be seen as a result of the safety and risk conditions of these jobs. The purpose of this paper is to contrast the role of unhealthy behaviour as a source or as an outcome of safety and risk in the construction sector. Data was collected from 180 workers belonging to a Spanish construction company. Two path models representing these two hypotheses were tested. The model in which unhealthy behaviour is an antecedent of injuries did not fit the data (Chi square= 73.798, df= 3, p<0.001). Results support the hypothesis of unhealthy behaviour as a result of safety and risk factors through the mediating effect of the experience of tension (Chi-square= 4.507, df= 2, p= .212). This model not only corroborates the stressful nature of exposure to risk and the absence of supervisors' safety response, but it also makes it possible to consider injuries as a cause of tension that, in turn, affects the employees' unhealthy behaviour.
