A Four-Factor Model of Work Addiction: The Development of the Work Addiction Risk Test Revised

Abstract

Background: Work has a crucial role in individuals’ productivity, social life, and psychological well-being. Despite various definitions of work addiction in the literature, the number of psychometrically reliable instruments is limited. Objectives: The aim of this study was to psychometrically test and revise the factor structure of the Work Addiction Risk Test (WART), one of the most widely used instruments assessing work addiction. Method: The full version of the WART [Robinson, Post, & Khakee, 1992] was assessed using a nationally representative sample of Hungary (n = 2,710). To increase validity, the analyses were conducted among individuals who worked at least 40 h a week (n = 1,286, 43% women, mean age = 38.9 years, SD = 10.8). Results: Using confirmatory factor analysis, the originally proposed 4- and 5-factor solutions did not have adequate model fit indices. Thus, the sample was randomly divided into 2 subsamples. Exploratory factor analysis conducted in the first half of the sample supported a 4-factor solution, which was confirmed in the other half of the sample. The Work Addiction Risk Test Revised (WART-R) comprises 17 items and 4 factors (i.e., Overcommitment, Impatience, Hard-working, and Salience). Using a latent class analysis, a cutoff score (51 points out of 68) for the high risk of work addiction was determined. Almost one in 10 participants (9.3%) were identified as being symptomatic of work addiction, and these individuals also reported an elevated level of mental distress and hostility. Conclusions: As a conclusion, the WART-R is suitable to be used as an indicator of work addiction based on clinically relevant symptom dimensions.

Maladaptive Rumination Mediates the Relationship between Self-Esteem, Perfectionism, and Work Addiction: A Largescale Survey Study

“…The risk of work addiction was assessed using the Work Addiction Risk Test Revised [ 7 ]. The original 25-item scale was developed by Robinson, Khakee, and Post [ 65 ], but the present study utilized the 17-item shortened version because it has better psychometric properties [ 7 ]. Individuals rate themselves on a four-point Likert scale from “never” to “always”.…”

“…On the other hand, work addiction and related overwork can have several adverse physical, mental, and social consequences both for individuals and their environment [ 4 , 5 ]. Although the prevalence of work addiction varies across surveys due to the different definitions, methods, and screening instruments used, largescale representative studies have shown that the lifetime prevalence of work addiction was 8.3% among Norwegian workers [ 6 ], and 8–9% among Hungarian employees [ 7 , 8 ]. Due to its seemingly high prevalence compared to other addictive behaviors [ 9 ], there is an increasing interest in understanding the psychosocial correlates of work addiction [ 4 , 10 ].…”

Workaholism in Korea: Prevalence and Socio-Demographic Differences

“…In the last decades many researchers have world-wide tried to develop measures of workaholism, as it was recognized as a harmful disease (Andreassen et al, 2018;Griffiths et al, 2018;Urbán et al, 2019). Two American measures, WorkBAT by Spence and Robbins (1992) and the WART by Robinson (1998Robinson ( /2013, have been widely used in assessing workaholism prevalence.…”

Having the Cake and Eating It Too: First-Order, Second-Order and Bifactor Representations of Work Engagement

“…We were able to identify a total of 33 independent studies that investigated the factor structure and reliability of the UWES-9 (more details are provided in Supplementary Table 1 1 We carried out this study in Hungary which provided us with a unique context for multiple reasons. First, recent national surveys show that Hungarian people spend a lot of time with work, around 43-44 hours per week (Kun et al, 2020;Urbán et al, 2019). Second, at the same time, Hungarian employees are substantially less engaged with their work when compared to other European countries (Schaufeli, 2018).…”