Examining the Factor Structure of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) as a Measure of Victim Response to the Psychological Pain of Subtle Workplace Bullying

Abstract

Literature addressing victim-bully dynamics suggests that subtle bullying is prevalent in health care, both in practice and educational settings. The complex dynamics of workplace bullying complicate its assessment. The purpose was to investigate the factor structure of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) for modeling victim responses to subtle workplace bullying. Nursing faculty members from multiple Midwestern universities (N = 116) completed the PCS online. The 3-factor PCS structure (i.e., Rumination, Helplessness, Magnification) developed to describe victim response to chronic physical pain was useful in describing victim response to the chronic psychological pain of bullying via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). With minor modifications, the PCS represented the construct of victim response to bullying's psychological pain.