摘要：This study reports on analysis of safety awareness in scientific university research laboratories in Japan by Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). In order to reveal safety in the laboratories, which is considered significantly important but is treated empirically and ambiguously, this study explored the subconscious views of laboratory researchers through a questionnaire method. The questionnaire survey was targeted at science-major students in universities and professional training college in Japan. By EFA and CFA, statistical analysis was observed on 406 obtained samples. From EFA, four factors were extracted: "Education and cooperative structure on safety", "Operational procedures", "Self protection", and "Sense of fulfillment". A result of EFA indicated a hypothetical construct that the answers of the questionnaire items should be represented by the factors and additional unexpected factors in a given domain of questions. When additional contributions of the factors showed relatively higher factor loading to the items in EFA are considered, this construct can indicates a good fit in CFA. EFA also revealed that the relationships among the safety awareness and the latent factors. It showed that safety awareness in universities seems to have close to safety education and that in scientific research laboratories seems to be recognized by laboratory-near-affairs. The factors derived from factor analysis are expected to help in comprehending the examinees' recognition and understanding of safety as well as explaining their safety behavior.
关键词：Factor analysis; laboratory safety; Japanese university; research laboratory; questionnaire; safety ; awareness
