Access Type

Open Access Thesis

Date of Award

January 2014

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Alyssa McGonagle

Abstract

ABSTRACT

WORK-HEALTH CONFLICT: SCALE DEVELOPMENT FOR WORKERS MANAGING A CHRONIC ILLNESS

by

SARAH STODDART

Advisor: Dr. Alyssa K. McGonagle

Major: Psychology (Industrial and Organizational)

Degree: Master of Arts

The current study developed a Work Health Conflict (WHC) scale to measure conflict experienced by workers who are managing a chronic health condition and continuing to work. It is estimated that 72 million working age adults are also managing a chronic illness. In order to develop the scale 4 studies were conducted using two samples of workers that are currently working with an illness. The first study employed an open-ended survey in order to examine the real life conflict experiences of workers with chronic illness. Results of this study were used to confirm the proposed sub-dimensions of the scales and to confirm that no content was missing before generating items for the scale. The second study used a Q-sort method in order to examine the scale items before collecting quantitative data to examine the factor structure of the scale. In the third study items were deleted from the scale and the WHC yielded an acceptable model fit. Additionally, the WHC demonstrated both convergent and discriminant validity. The WHC also demonstrated incremental validity over WFC and FWC after controlling for illness severity and negative affect with life-related burnout, work-related burnout and withdrawal. Interestingly, in the current study no relationship was observed between the WHC scale and job or life satisfaction.

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