COPSOQ III in China: Preliminary Validation of an International Instrument to Measure Psychosocial Work Factors

The Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) is an international instrument designed for the assessment and improvement of psychosocial conditions in workplaces and for research purposes. After the International COPSOQ Network took over responsibility for the development of COPSOQ, a new version was published in 2019 (COPSOQ III). However, there is no widely recognized instrument for measuring psychosocial work factors, and insufficient research exists regarding the use of COPSOQ III within the Chinese setting. This study seeks to conduct a preliminary validation of the Chinese long version of COPSOQ III.

A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted with a large sample in a medical consortium in China. Item analysis, reliability, and validity were explored.

The data management platform showed that 1067 respondents who met the inclusion criteria completed the questionnaire, among which 1054 questionnaires were valid. The content validity results showed that the I-CVI and S-CVI/AVE of each item ranged from 42.86 to 100.00, and the S-CVI/AVE was 92.52, indicating that the Chinese long version of COPSOQ III had good content validity. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) extracted seven factors, which explained 63.96% of the variation. The results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that the model was well fit (χ²/df = 4.50, CFI = 0.910, TLI = 0.897, IFI = 0.910, RMSEA = 0.058). The Cronbach alpha coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.92.

The Chinese long version of COPSOQ III is of good reliability and validity, like the original, and can be used to assess psychosocial work factors in China.