Work Addiction among Bank Employees in Italy: A Contribution to Validation of the Bergen Work Addiction Scale with a Focus on Measurement Invariance across Gender and Managerial Status

Alessandra Falco, Damiano Girardi (), Alessandro De Carlo, Cecilie Schou Andreassen and Laura Dal Corso
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Alessandra Falco: FISPPA Section of Applied Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 14, 35131 Padua, Italy
Damiano Girardi: FISPPA Section of Applied Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 14, 35131 Padua, Italy
Alessandro De Carlo: Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Vascular Sciences and Public Health, University of Padua, Via Giustiniani 2, 35128 Padua, Italy
Cecilie Schou Andreassen: Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Bergen, Alrek helseklynge, Årstadveien 17, 5020 Bergen, Norway
Laura Dal Corso: FISPPA Section of Applied Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 14, 35131 Padua, Italy

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 21, 1-16

Abstract: This study contributes to the validation of the Bergen Work Addiction Scale (BWAS) in the Italian context, with a focus on measurement invariance across gender and managerial status. The BWAS is a consolidated measure of work addiction (WA) anchored in general addiction theory that comprises seven items representing the core addiction components. Participants were 8419 bank workers (37.7% women, 12.9% managers) who completed a self-report questionnaire including the Italian version of the BWAS (BWAS-I) and the Dutch Work Addiction Scale, as well as measures of work engagement, perfectionism, workload, psycho-physical symptoms, work–family conflict, and job satisfaction. Results confirmed the single-factor structure of the BWAS-I. Partial scalar invariance held across gender and managerial status, meaning that most—but not all—item intercepts were equivalent across different populations. Furthermore, the BWAS-I showed adequate convergent, discriminant, criterion-related, and incremental validity. This study showed that the BWAS-I is a valuable instrument that can be used by researchers and practitioners to assess WA in the Italian context.

Keywords: work addiction; psychometric properties; scale validation; measurement invariance; gender; managerial status (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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