Salāmat-i kār-i Īrān (May 2020)
Psychometric properties of a Farsi version of the Dutch Boredom Scale Questionnaire (DUBS) in Iranian University of Medical Sciences employees
Abstract
Abstract Background and Aim: Boredom is a psychological phenomenon which is caused by many factors and it can be accompanied by undesirable effects such as reduction of professional performance. Boredom in the workplace leads to a decrease in job satisfaction and performance, and ultimately leads to a reduction in production and increase in costs of the organization. Boredom is marked by tiredness, nullity, sense of frustration with emptiness, being bored and uninterested, not interacting with a current event or situation. Most employees who are prone to boredom often experience monotony patterns in their working lives and these people are probably less self-sufficient and less enthusiastic about their work than their colleagues. Being physically present but without the motivation and not using their ability of the workplace is both costly for the organization and harmful to the health of employees. There are many factors contributing to boredom, such as mismatch between employees and work, repetitive and monotony work, feelings of job insecurity, lack of emotion, increasing levels of education and skills of employees over the job’s needs and their role in the workplace. Boredom has a long history in organizational research and has been extensively discussed in academic literature on the expenses associated with individuals and organizations and the evidence shows that it is associated with negative individual and organizational outcomes. Almost all people experience boredom at different times, regardless of the nature of the work. This phenomenon may have an impact at all levels of each organization across different countries. Although empirical evidence shows that the incidence of boredom is widespread, studies in this field have been neglected today. In Iran, there is no reliable tool to measure Boredom in employees. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine psychometric properties of a Farsi version of the Dutch Boredom Scale Questionnaire (DUBS) in the employees of Iranian University of Medical Sciences. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 588 employees of Iran University of Medical Sciences during 2013-2014. Given the number of employees in the university affiliated units by proportional allocation method. At first, the number of employees required for the study was determined in each unit, and then, through available sampling, individuals were selected and included in the study. In this study, two-part questionnaire was used to collect data, the first part of which was related to demographic information and the second part of the questionnaire is consisted of 8 questions presented by Reijger et al. A 5-point Likert scale with very disagree to strongly agree (one to five points) was used therefore boredom score will differentiate between 8 to 40). The questionnaire was translated from English to Persian by using the standard back – translation method. The English version of the questionnaire was translated by two translators from English to Persian; then the Persian version was obtained by comparing and compiling the two versions. Next, the back translation was performed in such a way that the re-translation of the English version was corrected by two content specialists who were not shown the original questionnaires. Finally, the questionnaires were edited and finalized. Face validity was used by 13 experts who all experts approved the face validity questionnaire. Content validity was also used by 13 experts in the fields of epidemiology, health education, statistics, occupational health and psychology. Content validity, simplicity, clarity, importance, validity and necessity of the questionnaire questions were studied separately using a questionnaire. The simplicity and clarity of each of the 8 questions were confirmed by experts and the content validity indexes (CVI) and relative content validity coefficients (CVRs) were evaluated. The test-retest method was used to confirm the reliability of the questionnaire by IntraClass Correlation (ICC). The ICC was calculated by completing the questionnaire in two stages with two weeks interval from 30 people who were available. In order to analyze the data, descriptive methods including frequency distribution tables and descriptive indices were used. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to check the normality of the quantitative data and it was observed that the distribution of data was not normal. Therefore, Spearman correlation coefficient, nonparametric Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used. Data were analyzed using SPSS (version 22) and AMOS (version 24). Results: The results showed that 57% of the participants were female and their mean age was 35.72(±9. 18) years. More than half of the employees were married (68.4%) and 62.2% were Contract employees. The CVR Index for all questions was higher than the value in the Lawshe (0.54 for 13 expert). The CVI Index was calculated for all 8 questions and the mean was more than 0.8, so the questionnaire has good content validity. The test-retest method was used to check the reliability of the questionnaire and the intra-class correlation coefficient was 0.87 for the whole instrument that the questionnaire has a good reliability. Kaiser-Meier-Oklin was 0.846, which indicated that the data of this study were sufficient. Also, the Bartlettchr('39')s Spearmanchr('39')s for Sphericity (1430.71; p 0.05). The results show that the mean score of boredom in single staff was higher than married (p= 0.019). In level of education, the lowest mean level of boredom among employees with a masterchr('39')s degree and higher was also statistically significant (p= 0.016) compared to the average boredom in employees with lower degrees. Among the four occupations, the highest mean score of boredom was observed among service staff (17.15) and the lowest mean among educational-research staff (15.03) (p = 0.043). The mean CVI index for all items was 0.91 and the CVR index for items varied between 0.69 and 1.00 which indicated the validity of the questionnaire was acceptable. Using exploratory factor analysis, two factors were extracted and confirmed by fitting factor analysis. Correlation coefficient for the whole instrument was 0.89 and Cronbachchr('39')s alpha for the whole instrument was 0.823. In exploratory factor analysis, two individual factors with 5 items and environmental factor with 3 items were obtained. Conclusion: The results showed that the version of the DUBS scale had good psychometric properties for evaluation of Boredom at work in the employees of Iran University of Medical Sciences and could be used by Iranian researchers and experts in related fields.
