Using single items to measure job stressors

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether single-item measures of job stressor facets were as valid as multiple-item measures in predicting psychological strain. Single-item measures are more time and cost efficient than multiple-item measures and may also have psychometric benefits. Design/methodology/approach – Data from 3,166 hospital employees were used to evaluate the validity of 11 single-item job stressor facet measures by applying five criteria for content and criterion validity. Findings – Based on this data, six single-item measures of job stressors met all criteria, supporting their use as single-item facet measures. Research limitations/implications – The use of a sample of employees from one female-dominated industry may limit the generalizability of the results to other industries. Future research should replicate the results of the current study in other industries and use longitudinal designs to examine the predictive validity of the single-item measures. Future studies may also develop single-item measures of each facet a priori and examine their validity. Practical implications – Results support the use of single-item measures for the assessment of significance, recognition, workload, work-family conflict, skill use, and coworker relations, which can be included in research where a shorter survey is necessary. These six measures may facilitate more frequent assessment of job stressors, the assessment of job stressors as control variables, and the assessment of multiple job stressors simultaneously, while still minimizing survey space and cost. Originality/value – This is the first study to examine the validity of single-item measures of job stressors, which is a construct that is frequently assessed in organizations.