Psychometric properties of the job anxiety scale.

Background

Occupational stress and specifically job anxiety are crucial factors in determining health outcomes, job satisfaction as well as performance. In order to assess this phenomenon, the Job Anxiety Scale (JAS) is one of the instruments available. It consists of 70 items that are clustered in 14 subscales and five dimensions. This manuscript is a revised version of a retracted article that analyzed the properties of a short version of the JAS. Rather than shortening the scale, the authors of the JAS recommend to further assess the scale in its current state without modification of the factor structure. Hence, the aim of this paper is to assess the psychometric properties of the original JAS.

Methods

The sample consists of 991 - mostly psychosomatic - patients from two different clinics. We applied methods of factor analysis and bivariate correlations to explore and test factor structure and the nomological net of related constructs.

Results

The Job Anxiety Scale evinced satisfactory psychometric properties. We found very high internal consistency, and invariance across participant age. It displayed good discriminant validity and we found the expected pattern of convergent correlations. However, the model fit is not convincing.

Conclusion

With the Job Anxiety Scale, researchers can assess job related worries in a reliable manner. The questionnaire is particularly useful in large-scale surveys, in therapy or work-related contexts. However, the scale could be modified in order to aim for a better fit and assess job related anxiety in a more efficient way.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2023 Schmalbach, Schmalbach, Kalkbrenner, Bassler, Hinz and Petrowski.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.