Investigating Psychometric properties, the workers’ Psychological Burden from the Perspective of Occupational Safety and Health

Psychological load such as workload not only disrupts work performance, but can also have a direct effect on employee safety through accidents. However, despite this issue, many efforts have not been made to develop an assessment tool to measure psychological burden related to occupational safety and health of employees. Therefore, the present study was designed with the aim of validating the psychological burden scale of workers by Kim et al. (2018) from the perspective of occupational health and safety. 

The statistical population of the research consists of all the workers working in the Eastern Alborz Company of Shahroud city, and 349 workers participated in the research using a simple random sampling method. In the present study, the mental load scale of Kim et al. (2018), the Copenhagen psychosocial scale (COPSOQ) and the occupational stress scale (HSE) were used. The data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient tests and confirmatory factor analysis using SPSS-22 statistical software and Lisrel version 8.5.

Resalts: 

The results showed that all the components of workers' psychological burden with the overall score and Psycho-social scale and occupational stress scale have a positive and significant relationship. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis also showed the good fit of the model in determining the factors in the initial form expressed by Kim et al. (2018). To determine the reliability of the scale, the value of Pearson's correlation coefficient was obtained at 0.82 in the test and retest phases. Also, the results of this study showed that 26.1 percent of workers experience low psychological burden, 49.6 percent of workers experience moderate psychological burden, and 24.4 percent experience severe psychological burden.

Based on the results of the current research, the workers' mental burden scale (Kim et al., 2018) is a valid and reliable scale and can be used to evaluate the psychological burden of workers in research and intervention studies.