Identifying Culturally and Age Appropriate Farm Safety Curricula for Amish and Other Conservative Anabaptist Youth

Abstract

In conservative Anabaptist families, especially the Amish, children play many vital roles; this includes participation in daily living chores as well as occupationally related tasks. The goal of this qualitative study was to determine a culturally and age appropriate farm safety curriculum useful for the children of Amish and other conservative Anabaptist groups. The top areas of concern identified were lawnmowers and string trimmers, chemicals, water, livestock, confined spaces, tractors, and skid loaders. Amish children were reported to perform farm chores at a young age. Through this study, researchers did not find a strong tendency for parents to assign chores based on age or gender; rather, these assignments were based on the child's physical development, maturity, interest in the task, and birth order. The findings of this study hold up the need for additional agricultural safety curricula targeted toward children of these church groups for a broad range of ages and on a variety of farm topics.