Solving a methodological challenge in work stress evaluation with the Stress Assessment and Research Toolkit (StART): a study protocol (original) (raw)
Related papers
Frontiers in Psychology, 2018
Risk assessment represents an essential part of any successful intervention in health and safety at work. The most prominent European methodologies propose multi-method approaches for identifying the risks associated with work-related stress. Nevertheless, the most widely used method is the self-administered questionnaire. By adapting the UK Management Standards approach, the Italian National Workers Compensation Authority (INAIL) developed a checklist for the assessment of objective and verifiable indicators of work-related stress. This checklist is filled in by a steering group composed of homogenous groups of workers. Through a web-platform developed by INAIL, a considerable amount of data over the last 5 years has been collected throughout Italy. The aims of this study are to examine the psychometric properties as well as the practical validity of the checklist in a wide sample of Italian companies. The sample comprised 5,301 homogeneous groups of workers nested within 1,631 organizations. The checklist measures two main areas: (1) the organizational indicators of work-related stress (sentinel events) and (2) four and six factors related respectively to content and context of work. Multilevel and multivariate analyses revealed that the checklist shows adequate factor structure and criterion validity. Results also demonstrate that small companies and the public and healthcare sector show higher risk levels. These results support the use of the checklist as a structured and generalizable tool for assessing and monitoring the risks associated with work-related stress.
Work-Related Stress Risk Assessment
SAGE Open, 2016
Many approaches to work-related stress risk assessment suggest the integration between a phase where objective data are collected and analyzed, and a phase where results of data collection and analysis are discussed and compared with information coming from the workers. However, stress researchers have criticized the use of self-report job stress measures, because of their potential distortions, and have called for an approach based on the use of objective measures. The Italian law for work-related stress risk assessment, closer to the latter approach, prescribes a two-stage procedure: first, a set of objective measures and then, conditionally to the outcome of the first stage, a set of subjective measures. In this article, we analyze, on the basis of psychometric principles, the tool used for the objective stage in the most adopted method in Italy. Such a tool is a checklist for which we discuss a number of issues, suggesting it is not methodologically well founded. Given the fact ...
2014
Many approaches to work-related stress risk assessement suggest the integration between a phase where objective data are collected and analysed, and a phase where results of data collection and analysis are discussed and compared with information coming from the workers. On the other side, the use of self-report job stress measures has been criticized, due to their potential distortions, and stress researchers have repeatedly called for an approach based on the use of objective measures. The Italian law for work-related stress risk assessment, closer to the latter approach, prescribes a two-stage procedure: first a set of objective measures and then, conditionally to the outcome of the first stage, a set of subjective measures. We therefore describe and critically review, on the basis of psychometric principles, the tool used for the objective stage in the most adopted method in Italy. Such a tool is a checklist for which we discuss a number of issues suggesting it is not methodolog...
Analysis of a New Work-Related Stress Assessment Tool
The Open Neurology Journal
Background: Work-related stress is a relevant phenomenon in terms of health and safety at work, as occupational distress has a negative impact on individual and organisational well-being. It is a complex and multifactorial phenomenon, whose evaluation must be carried out through a specific and adequate methodology. Objective: This work aims to identify versatile tools that can quickly provide reliable measures of work distress. It analyzes the proposal elaborated by the “Comitato Unico di Garanzia per le Pari Opportunità, la Valorizzazione del Benessere di chi lavora e contro le Discriminazioni” of Rome, i.e. the tool “Valutazione è prevenzione, Sicurezza è partecipazione”. Methods: A study was carried out on a sample of 474 employees of the Neapolitan Judicial Offices, who were given a standardized questionnaire to investigate the stress, associated with the proposal of the Comitato Unico di Garanzia. Results: From the elaboration of the results, it emerges that the conditions of w...
Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology, 2012
Background: The aim of this work was to introduce a new combined method of subjective and objective measures to assess psychosocial risk factors at work and improve workers' health and well-being. In the literature most of the research on work-related stress focuses on self-report measures and this work represents the first methodology capable of integrating different sources of data. Method: An integrated method entitled St.A.R.T. (STress Assessment and Research Toolkit) was used in order to assess psychosocial risk factors and two health outcomes. In particular, a self-report questionnaire combined with an observational structured checklist was administered to 113 workers from an Italian retail company. Results: The data showed a correlation between subjective data and the rating data of the observational checklist for the psychosocial risk factors related to work contexts such as customer relationship management and customer queue. Conversely, the factors related to work content (workload and boredom) measured with different methods (subjective vs. objective) showed a discrepancy. Furthermore, subjective measures of psychosocial risk factors were more predictive of workers' psychological health and exhaustion than rating data. The different objective measures played different roles, however, in terms of their influence on the two health outcomes considered. Conclusions: It is important to integrate self-related assessment of stressors with objective measures for a better understanding of workers' conditions in the workplace. The method presented could be considered a useful methodology for combining the two measures and differentiating the impact of different psychological risk factors related to work content and context on workers' health.
La Clinica terapeutica, 2018
Stress is an emotional condition, mostly experienced as negative, initially identified and defined by Selye in the mid-thirties of the last Century. Since the first definition, stress concerns the adaptation pro- cess mostly related to environmental changes. An application of stress focuses on the evaluation of its interference on work conditions, and the scientific evidence on work related stress is very ample and rich. We are proposing a new ad hoc questionnaire for the multidimensional assessment of work related stress, called Stress Perception Question- naire of Rome (SPQR) composed of 50 items. The development of this questionnaire is based on a multi-step process: a) Identification of all the relevant topics to work related stress and areas in the scientific evidence and their transformation on specific contents of 60 tentative items; b) Exploratory factor analysis aimed to identify the best items (50) which could guarantee the maximum convergence on single scales (8), and the...
Evaluation of possible work stressors: Research conducted in an Icelandic company
2018
Work stress is an increasing problem around the world affecting both employees and organizations. Due to globalization, the work environment has changed greatly the last decades resulting in different work methods, increased technology and increased demands. As a consequence, employees can experience increased work stress which can lead to decreased well-being, poorer job performance and therefore affect organizations as a whole. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different work stressors on employees in an Icelandic company. It was also examined if the workplace stressors differed between departments and between supervisors and subordinates. Participants were 264 employees, who ranged from the age of 20-69 years. Stress was measured with the questionnaire Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and the workplace stressors were measured with a section from the questionnaire A Shortened Stress Evaluation Tool (ASSET). The findings indicated that certain workplace stressors w...
Workplace Stress: Issues and Challenges
2017
Stress is much in the news at present but it isn't a new problem. Pressure is part and parcel of all work and helps to keep us motivated. But excessive pressure can lead to stress which undermines performance, is costly to employers and can make people ill. Research reveals that many working days are lost to stress, depression and anxiety. Work-related stress costs a huge burden to the society. Stress takes many forms as well as leading to anxiety and depression it can have a significant impact on an employee's physical health. Research links stress to heart disease, back pain, headaches, gastrointestinal disturbances and alcohol and drug dependency. Individuals are more willing to admit that they are suffering from stress if they can expect to be dealt with sympathetically. In some cases good counseling may be all that is needed. This paper aims at studying the stressors that affects an individual at work, to examine the effects of stress and suitable measures which employe...
Stress at work: a report prepared for The Work Foundation’s principal partners
2007
Stress is everywhere, but as a relatively new phenomenon. How can we de ne it and how can we explain its extraordinary cost to both business and government? The su ering induced by stress is no gment of the imagination but can we accurately examine the relationship between stress and ill-health? Whatever stress is, it has grown immensely in recent years, which brings us to question – what is happening in society that is causing stress? The report shows that stress has its greatest e ects on those at the very top and those at the very bottom of the socio-economic ladder. The report considers recent analysis of stress and reviews a series of recent high-pro le contributions to the debate. It then explores the legal and policy contexts against which organisations must operate in regard to stress. Finally, practical interventions are examined and critically evaluated.