Work-related recovery opportunities: testing scale properties and validity in relation to health.
OBJECTIVE
Recovery opportunities allow employees to recuperate from work and diminish load effects. The aims of this study are to present a scale for measuring recovery opportunities, study its psychometric properties and its relationship with health.


METHODS
Data from three Dutch worker samples were used with response rates over 60%. Sample 1 contained 6,863 employees working in a wide variety of jobs in 114 organizations. Sample 2 contained data from 992 mental health care workers from ten different organizations. Sample 3 were 436 employees working in several specialized health care clinics.


RESULTS
Internal consistency of the nine-item recovery opportunities scale is good. Content validity of recovery opportunities, especially how it discriminates from other aspects of job control, is also good. Recovery opportunities show significant effects on work-related fatigue (need for recovery), sleep complaints, and health complaints, but not on future absenteeism.


CONCLUSIONS
The recovery opportunities scale has good reliability and shows good content-, construct- and criterion-related validity in three samples of workers that differ in amount of heterogeneity.
van Veldhoven
Marc J P M
MJ
Department of Human Resource Studies, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands. m.j.p.m.vanveldhoven@uvt.nl
Sluiter
Judith K
JK
D000041:Absenteeism; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005221:Fatigue / Q000150:complications* / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D016272:Occupational Health; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012146:Rest; D012890:Sleep; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology*