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Published in: BMC Public Health 1/2021

Open Access 01-12-2021 | Research article

Measuring job stress in transportation workers: psychometric properties, convergent validity and reliability of the ERI and JCQ among professional drivers

Authors: Sergio A. Useche, Francisco Alonso, Boris Cendales, Luis Montoro, Javier Llamazares

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2021

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Abstract

Background

The accumulated evidence has shown how professional drivers are, in psychosocial terms, among the most vulnerable workforces, and how their crashes (some of them preceded by stressful working conditions) constitute both an occupational and public health concern. However, there is a clear lack of validated tools for measuring stress and other key hazardous issues affecting transport workers, and most of the existing ones, frequently generic, do not fully consider the specific features that properly describe the work environment of professional driving. This study assessed the psychometric properties, convergent validity and consistency of two measures used for researching occupational stress among professional drivers: the Siegrist’s ERI (Effort-Reward Imbalance Inventory) and Karasek’s JCQ (Job Content Questionnaire).

Methods

We examined the data collected from 726 Spanish professional drivers. Analyses were performed using Structural Equation Models, thus obtaining basic psychometric properties of both measures and an optimized structure for the instruments, in addition to testing their convergent validity.

Results

The results suggest that the abbreviated versions of ERI (10 items) and JCQ (20 items) have clear dimensional structures, high factorial weights, internal consistency and an improved fit to the task’s dynamics and hazards, commonly faced by of professional drivers; a short set of items with low psychometrical adjustment was excluded, and the root structure of the questionnaires was kept.

Conclusions

This study supports the value and reliability of ERI-10 and JCQ-20 for measuring job stress among professional drivers. Also, there is a high consistency between both measures of stress, even though they belong to different theoretical conceptions of the phenomenon. In practical settings, these instruments can be useful for occupational researchers and practitioners studying stress-related issues from the perspective of human factors.
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Metadata
Title
Measuring job stress in transportation workers: psychometric properties, convergent validity and reliability of the ERI and JCQ among professional drivers
Authors
Sergio A. Useche
Francisco Alonso
Boris Cendales
Luis Montoro
Javier Llamazares
Publication date
01-12-2021
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2021
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11575-1

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