Development of an Occupational Strain Scale for Chinese workers

  Objective  To develop an Occupational Strain Scale for Chinese employees and to evaluate its reliability and validity.

  Methods  An initial scale was developed based on literature reviews, semi-structured interviews, Delphi expert consultation and a pilot survey. Then the complied scale was self-administered online among 2 432 in-service employees sampled at 10 domestic enterprises and institutions in 5 cities of Sichuan province during March 2019. Valid information were collected from 2 191 responders; of them, 1 096 were assessed for exploratory factor analysis and other process for item screening and 1 095 were assessed for the scale's reliability and validity analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis was adopted in validity test and Cronbach'α and split-half reliability were used in reliability evaluation.

  Results  The established scale included 15 items for cognitive behavioral, psychological and physical strain, which could explain 68.796% of total variance of the scale. The results of confirmatory factors analysis demonstrated that the three-domain model fitted well (χ²/df = 3.894, normed fit index = 0.969, comparative fit index = 0.977, incremental fit index = 0.977, Tucker-Lewis index = 0.971, root mean square error of approximation = 0.051). The Cronbach α coefficient was 0.935 for the general scale and ranged 0.789 – 0.923 for the 3 subscales. The split-half reliability coefficient was 0.863 for the general scale, and ranged 0.766 – 0.898 for the 3 subscales.

  Conclusion  The developed Occupational Strain Scale is of good reliability and validity and could be applied for measurement of occupational strain in Chinese working populations.