Psychosocial Safety Climate as a Mediator Between Safety Culture and Perceived Safety Performance in East Java Mid-Rise Construction Projects

Construction safety in developing economies remains shaped by the interaction between formal safety systems and daily site conditions. This cross-sectional survey examined whether psychosocial safety climate (PSC) mediates the association between safety culture and perceived safety performance among 132 male workers from six selected mid-rise construction projects in Malang, Jember, Kediri, and Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia. The study used translated and adapted questionnaire items and analyzed the data with PLS-SEM. Safety culture was positively associated with PSC (beta = 0.801, p < 0.001) and perceived safety performance (beta = 0.347, p = 0.025). PSC was also positively associated with perceived safety performance (beta = 0.476, p = 0.001). The indirect path from safety culture to perceived safety performance through PSC was significant (beta = 0.381, p = 0.001), with a total effect of 0.728 and VAF of 52.3%. These findings suggest partial mediation rather than causal improvement. The study contributes to construction safety engineering by showing how PSC can be embedded into toolbox meetings, work-at-height supervision, PPE inspections, fatigue checks, and confidential psychosocial hazard reporting.