title: The Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire in Germany: from the validation of the instrument to the formation of a job-specific database of psychosocial factors at work.
abstract: The German version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) was established and tested in a sample of 2561 employees in order to: (a) assess the questionnaires' psychometric properties; and (b) develop an appropriate instrument to use in the assessment of psychosocial risk factors. A shortened version of the instrument was developed, reducing the number of items from 141 to 87. With this, a database has been established since 2005. In a cooperation model between science (Freiburg Research Centre of Occupational and Social Medicine) and companies or organizations, new COPSOQ data are added to the dynamically growing database with profession-specific profiles of psychosocial factors at work. In return, companies can compare their results with job-related data in the database, facilitating the interpretation of their results and the implementation of improvement measures. The COPSOQ database has reached > 25,000 respondents. Ongoing projects will expand the German COPSOQ database and include representative samples. Furthermore, a job exposure matrix for psychosocial factors at work will be constructed in 2009. Finally, in several projects, a first assessment has been followed by efforts to improve the problematic areas of psychosocial working conditions.
authors.affiliation: FFAS-Freiburg Research Centre of Occupational and Social Medicine (Freiburger Forschungsstelle Arbeits- und Sozialmedizin), Freiburg, Germany. nuebling@ffas.de
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nuebling
authors.forename: Hans Martin
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Hasselhorn
mesh_terms: D016208:Databases, Factual; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D007857:Leadership; D016272:Occupational Health; D009790:Occupations / Q000145:classification; D011594:Psychometrics; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology; D017132:Workplace / Q000523:psychology*