Development of a Quality of Working Life Scale （QWL7-32）

Objective To develop a simple structured scale measuring quality of working life (QWL) from the perspective of occupational he alth and safety. Methods We identified the dimensions and items of QWL through literature review, brainstorming and expert panel discussions, a nd developed a pre-test questionnaire. The pre-test questionnaire was tested i n school teachers and revised accordingly. The QWL Scale was eventually validate d in 516 school teachers in Chengdu. We examined the validity and reliability of the final scale (QWL7-32). Results The exploratory factor ana lysis extracted seven factors with an eigenvalue greater than 1. Those seven fac tors contributed to 60.1% of the total variance. The confirmatory factor Analysi s endorsed the seven factor model. The seven-dimension scale had good convergen t validity and discriminant validity. The Cronbach’s α coefficients of the QWL 7-32 scale and all its seven dimensions were around or h igher than 0.70 (P<0.01). The test-retest correlation coefficients of the s cale and all its seven dimensions were close to or greater than 0.60 (P<0.01 ). Conclusion The QWL7-32 scale has acceptable validity and re liability. It measures QWL in a comprehensive, specific and accurate way, and ca n be used as an instrument for assessing QWL.