Abstract
Purpose Participation in regular paid jobs positively affects mental and physical health of all people, including people with limited work capacities (LWC), people that are limited in their work capacity as a consequence of their disability, such as chronic mental illness, psychological or developmental disorder. For successful participation, a good fit between on one hand persons’ capacities and on the other hand well-suited individual support and a suitable work environment is necessary in order to meet the demands of work. However, to date there is a striking paucity of validated measures that indicate the capability to work of people with LWC and that outline directions for support that facilitate the fit. Goal of the present study was therefore to develop such an instrument. Specifically, we adjusted measures of mental ability, conscientiousness, self-efficacy, and coping by simplifying the language level of these measures to make the scales accessible for people with low literacy. In order to validate these adjusted self-report and observer measures we conducted two studies, using multi-source, longitudinal data. Method Study 1 was a longitudinal multi-source study in which the newly developed instrument was administered twice to people with LWC and their significant other. We statistically tested the psychometric properties with respect to dimensionality and reliability. In Study 2, we collected new multi-source data and conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results Studies yielded a congruous factor structure in both samples, internally consistent measures with adequate content validity of scales and subscales, and high test–retest reliability. The CFA confirmed the factorial validity of the scales. Conclusion The adjusted self-report and the observer scales of mental ability, conscientiousness, self-efficacy, and coping are reliable measures that are well-suited to assess the work capability of people with LWC. Further research is needed to examine criterion-related validity with respect to the work demands such as work-behaviour and task performance.
Highlights
In Europe there is growing understanding of the economic and psychological importance of labour participation of people with limited work capacity (LWC)
The existing instruments that have been developed for the general population are not always suitable for people with LWC, since they often deal with low literacy or lack in mental ability to understand the language that is used in most questionnaires
After deletion of this item and repetition of the procedure, principal components analysis (PCA) resulted in a five-factor model for the mental ability scale in both samples
Summary
In Europe there is growing understanding of the economic and psychological importance of labour participation of people with limited work capacity (LWC). People with mental disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often face difficulties in concentrating over longer periods of time, which makes it difficult for them to complete extensive instruments For these reasons we adapted existing instruments in order to develop an instrument that assesses the mental work capability of people with LWC, and that can help to identify their respective strengths and weaknesses. Such an instrument can inform selection and placement decisions.
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