Development and Preliminary Validation of a Scale for Measuring Perceived Professional Stress (SPP) in the Workplace

Abstract

Introduction: Occupational stress is the second occupational disease after Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs). Its assessment tools are well known in the northern countries. In the countries of the South, however, rare are the studies devoted to the development of a valid instrument for its estimation while the factors highlighting its existence have been reported by several studies. Objective: The objective of this study is to design and validate a scale for measuring the SPP adapted to the Burkinabe business environment. Methodology: Several waves of purposive surveys (ranging from a small sample to a large sample) were performed with company employees (30; 20; 20; 446). The design and the validation of the measurement scale have been carried out on the basis of recent measurement recommendations in psychometrics. The data collected has been processed following content analysis and MASQDA software for qualitative data and SPSS 21 and AMOS 25 software respectively, for factor analysis Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Results: a 16-item scale with four dimensions: physical, Emotional, cognitive, and behavioral of the SPP was designed. These dimensions met the validity criteria (AVE index = .77 > .50) and reliability (Cronbach alpha of .87 and Joreskog Rho index .88 > .70) psychometrics recommended by the authors. Conclusion: The scale of measurement Perceived Occupational Stress (PPS) proposed has shown its validity and reliability on confirmatory factor analysis. It can be used to estimate the level of stress among company employees. However, large-scale studies should be undertaken to confirm its psychometric validity.