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Scale psychometrics of the Portuguese short and middle length variants of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire III pilot study
D.A. Coelho
Universidade da Beira Interior, CovilhĂŁ, Portugal
M.L. Lourenço
Instituto Politécnico da Guarda, Guarda, Portugal
ABSTRACT: The Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (CoPsoQ) has evolved into its third version, as a consequence of the development process of the assessment tool. A cross-sectional study was undertaken of administrative collaborators in 5 higher education institutions in Portugal spread throughout the country. Total number of valid responses was 116, with a low response rate (estimated at 8%), but unveiling the psychometric properties of the scales across the two lengths of the questionnaire. For most scales, the results of internal reliability consistency, support the reductions in scale items between the middle and short lengths of the Portuguese CoPsoQ III. The short version is hence appropriate for use in practitioner assessments, while the middle and long versions are deemed appropriate as research instruments, with a choice between both representing a trade-off between granularity of the results and time required to complete the questionnaire. Scores reported in the article can serve as reference points during future evaluation of results using the CoPsoQ III.
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Psychosocial factors at work have been studied for a long time (Utzet, Navarro, Llorens & Moncada, 2015). Since the 1960s, several study models have emerged, each of which evaluates different aspects and seeks to explain the impacts that the labor situation may have on the quality of life of workers. In this scenario, in the 2000s, COPSOQ was designed to meet the legal requirements in Denmark for assessing the psychosocial factors of work in occupational risk surveys. Thus, its authors incorporated theoretical models established in the literature with a view to a multidimensional instrument (Kristensen et al., 2005; Kristensen, 2010), such as: Demand-Control-Social Support (DCS, Johnson & Hall, 1988) and Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI, Siegrist, Peter, Junge, Cremer & Seidel, 1990). The DCS model advocates a relationship between well-being and a triad of labor factors. The ERI model, however, suggests that the imbalance between the effort made and the compensation offered by the work (e.g., status, esteem, salary) can be a risk factor for health and well-being (da Silva, Wendt & de Lima Argimon, 2017).
1.2 Aims and method
The main objectives of the study, part of a large international collaborative research effort, were: to adapt and psychometrically characterize the short and middle length Portuguese translation of the third version of the CoPsoQ, by means of a pilot cross-sectional study. Adapting the original questionnaire and developing the Portuguese version proved to be a necessary process, which was based on the translation and reverse translation method. Moreover, as part of the collaborative effort of defining the scope of the short version of the questionnaire, psychometric analysis of the scales was undertaken, with a view to compare the short and middle length...
