The job content questionnaire in various occupational contexts: applying a latent class model

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Psychometrics
• Sociology

Background:

• The Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) is a widely used tool for assessing job characteristics.
• Understanding job strain is crucial for employee well-being and organizational productivity.
• The Job-Strain Model (JSM) categorizes jobs into active, passive, low strain, and high strain situations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the performance of the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) using latent class analysis.
• To assess the applicability of the Job-Strain Model (JSM) across diverse occupational groups in Brazil.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional studies were conducted in Brazil involving petroleum industry workers, teachers, primary healthcare workers, and urban workers.
• Latent class analysis, a multivariate statistical method, was employed to extract and describe latent classes within occupational categories.
• Conditional probabilities of workers belonging to each class were graphically analyzed.

Main Results:

• Initially, four latent classes (active, passive, low strain, high strain) were extracted, aligning with the JSM.
• After evaluating adequacy criteria, three classes (active, low strain, high strain) were identified for urban workers and teachers.
• Four classes (active, passive, low strain, high strain) were identified for primary healthcare and petroleum industry workers.

Conclusions:

• The JSM's four job types were identified in primary healthcare and petroleum industry workers, groups with high skill discretion and decision authority.
• Three job types, excluding passive job situations, were identified among teachers and urban workers.
• Latent class analysis effectively described the conditional responses of job types proposed by the JSM, particularly for active, high, and low strain situations.