International Empirical Validation and Value Added of the Multilevel Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) 2.0

Maren Formazin (), Maureen F. Dollard, BongKyoo Choi, Jian Li, Wilfred Agbenyikey, Sung-il Cho, Irene Houtman and Robert Karasek
Additional contact information
Maren Formazin: Division “Work and Health”, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), 10317 Berlin, Germany
Maureen F. Dollard: PSC Global Observatory, University of South Australia, Adelaide 5000, Australia
BongKyoo Choi: Center for Work and Health Research, Irvine, CA 92620, USA
Jian Li: Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Fielding School of Public Health and School of Nursing, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Wilfred Agbenyikey: US Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Baltimore, MD 21244, USA
Sung-il Cho: Department of Public Health Science, School of Public Health and Institute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
Irene Houtman: TNO Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, 2333 BE Leiden, The Netherlands
Robert Karasek: Institute for Psychology, Copenhagen University, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark

IJERPH, 2025, vol. 22, issue 4, 1-19

Abstract: This paper investigates whether the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) 2.0 composite scales for demand, control, and stability-support at the task and organizational level are related to health and work-related outcomes as hypothesized in the job demand–control and Associationalist Demand–Control models. Further, the relative improvement of the JCQ 2.0 instrument over the JCQ 1 scales in the prediction of health and work-related outcomes is tested. The JCQ 2.0 was applied among workers in Australia and Germany. Analyses of variance and Kruskal–Wallis tests were applied for mean score comparison. In addition, path modeling as well as regression analyses were used. JCQ 2.0 task and organizational level demand, control, and stability-support as well as job strain and organizational-level active work are related to health and work-related outcomes as expected. Associations with active work at the task level are limited. A multilevel framework whereby organizational demands relate to task demands and, in turn, depression and burnout, is found in both German and Australian data. A similar organization to task process is found for control and support in German data, but for Australia, there is only a direct organizational effect on both outcomes. The task- and organizational-level composites—demand, control, and stability-support—explain unique variances in health and work-related outcomes. The JCQ 2.0 composites explain substantially more variance in all outcomes than the classic JCQ 1 DC and DCS scales. The results underline the utility of the JCQ 2.0 to assess multilevel aspects of the psychosocial work environment with broad practical value as a psychosocial risk assessment tool.

Keywords: demand; control; stability-support; added variance; JCQ 2.0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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