The Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire—a tool for the assessment and improvement of the psychosocial work environment

Abstract

Objectives The aim of this article is to present the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ), a questionnaire developed in three different lengths for assessing psychosocial factors at work, stress, and the well-being of employees and some personality factors. The purpose of the COPSOQ concept is to improve and facilitate research, as well as practical interventions at workplaces. MethodsThe development of the questionnaire was based on a survey of a representative sample of 1858Danish employees aged 20-59 years. The response rate was 62%; 49% were women. Altogether 145 questions from some international and Danish questionnaires and 20 self-developed questions were tested with factor analyses, analyses of internal reliability, and analyses of response patterns. ResultsThe analyses resulted in a long research version of the questionnaire with 141 questions and 30 dimensions, a medium-length version for work environment professionals with 95 questions and 26 dimensions, and a short version for workplaces with 44 questions and 8 dimensions. Most of the scales have good reliability, and there seems to be very little overlap between the scales. A novel feature of the COPSOQ is the development of five different scales on demands at work. ConclusionsThe COPSOQ concept is a valid and reliable tool for workplace surveys, analytic research, interventions, and international comparisons. The questionnaire seems to be comprehensive and to include most of the relevant dimensions according to several important theories on psychosocial factors at work. The three versions facilitate communication between researchers, work environment professionals, and workplaces.Key terms psychosocial factors; stress; survey. The psychosocial work environment is generally considered to be one of the most important work environment issues in contemporary and future societies (1-5). A large proportion of employees in the countries of the European Union (EU) reports being exposed to psychosocial stressors at work, and the consequences are believed to be very significant for workers, workplaces, and society. Among these consequences are musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular diseases, mental disorders, stress, burnout, reduced quality of life, sickness absence, labor turnover, and decreased motivation and productivity. Recently, the EU member countries gave psychosocial factors "top priority" among work environment factors (6), and the directors of the European work environment institutes have estimated that psychosocial factors would be the most important research field in the future (7).In research on psychosocial factors several different methods can be used, such as standardized questionnaires, clinical examinations, observational methods, registers, secondary data, and qualitative interviews. Most researchers agree that well-validated standardized questionnaires are necessary tools in research, as well as in practical prevention. In our article, such a tool is presented: the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ). Background ...

Invisible work, unseen hazards: The health of women immigrant household service workers in Spain

“…In a second phase of analysis, coded data from the psychosocial hazards category were organized using the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) (Kristensen et al 2005), which incorporates concepts from demand-control-support models (Karasek 1979, Johnson & Hall 1988) and effort-reward imbalance models (Siegrist 1996) of workplace stress. Textual segments of data were assigned to the psychosocial hazards dimensions through constant comparison (Tashakkori & Teddlie 1998).…”

A questionnaire is more than a questionnaire

“…During our discussions the idea of the ''Three-level concept'' quickly emerged: A long questionnaire for the researchers, a medium size for the professional work environment experts (occupational health services, labour inspection, private consultants, organizations, big companies), and a short version for the smaller companies and workplaces. As a natural consequence of this, the following goals of the Three-level concepts were formulated [1]:…”

“…Much more research on this important issue is necessary. My main point in this connection is that the two versions of COPSOQ [1,25] have been able not only to reflect and document the transition from job factors to company factors but also to contribute to this development of a more global understanding of psychosocial factors. If we had chosen a ''modelspecific'' instrument instead of an open instrument this could not have been possible.…”

Exposición a riesgos psicosociales entre la población asalariada en España (2004-05): valores de referencia de las 21 dimensiones del cuestionario COPSOQ ISTAS21

“…La evaluación de los riesgos psicosociales en las empresas requiere la identificación, localización y medida de las exposiciones mediante métodos técnicamente válidos y fiables, operativamente factibles y socialmente aceptables. La aparición del Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire 16,17 (COPSOQ) en el 2000, compatible conceptualmente con los modelos teóricos más aceptados en psicosociología [18][19][20] , supuso un importante avance. Entre sus aportaciones más relevantes destacan la inclusión de dimensiones hasta el momento ausentes en los instrumentos de evaluación psicosocial, la concepción de 3 versiones equivalentes del cuestionario de distinta longitud para usos diversos (versión corta para muy pequeñas empresas y auto evaluación, media para medianas y grandes empresas, larga para investigación), y el establecimiento de valores de referencia ("distribución de frecuencias de una medida en una población que no ha sido seleccionada en base a la presencia de enfermedad" 21 ) para todas sus dimensiones 16 .…”