{"title":"Workplace Violence (KWVS®13): scale development and validation in the Korean context.","authors":"Da-Yee Jeung, Hyoung Ryoul Kim, Hansoo Song, Inah Kim, Jin-Ha Yoon, Sang-Baek Koh, Sung-Soo Oh, Hee-Tae Kang, Dae-Sung Hyun, Chunhui Suh, Sei-Jin Chang","doi":"10.35371/aoem.2025.37.e14","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Workplace violence refers to any act or threat of physical violence, verbal abuse, harassment, intimidation, bullying, mobbing, or other aggressive and disruptive behaviors that occur at work. This study aims to develop and validate a revision of the Korean Workplace Violence Scale (KWVS®13), based on the first edition of the Korean Workplace Violence Scale (KWVS-24), and to provide practical applications and guidelines for the Korean workplace environment.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The revised KWVS®13 was developed by restructuring the 24-item KWVS through a review process involving eight experts. To validate the reliability and validity of KWVS®13, a self-administered survey comprising KWVS®13, burnout, and depression scales was conducted among 359 service industry workers. KWVS®13 was reclassified, and its reliability and validity were assessed. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to establish sex-specific cutoff values (normal vs. risk) of the scale.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>KWVS®13 consists of 13 items across four subscales: \"psychological and sexual violence from customers\" (4 items), \"psychological and sexual violence from supervisors or coworkers\" (4 items), \"physical assault from customers, supervisors, or coworkers\" (2 items), and \"organizational protective system for workplace violence\" (3 items). We found that KWVS®13 shows relatively good validity (content validity ratio for content validity: 0.888; success rate of item convergent and discriminant validity: 100%, and significant correlation coefficient with burnout (r = 0.115-0.83, p < 0.05) and depression (r = 0.098-0.348, p < 0.05) with the exception of Organizational Violence Protection System for Workplace Violence) and reliability (Cronbach's alpha: 0.827-0.860). The reference values for determining risk groups according to the intensity of exposure to workplace violence are presented separately by sex.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>KWVS®13 is a robust and useful measurement tool to objectively and quantitatively assess the intensity and magnitude of workplace violence. It incorporates important considerations for workplace violence assessment and provides a reliable framework for evaluating workplace violence in various professional settings.</p>","PeriodicalId":46631,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine","volume":"37 ","pages":"e14"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.35371/aoem.2025.37.e14","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/5/7 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Workplace violence refers to any act or threat of physical violence, verbal abuse, harassment, intimidation, bullying, mobbing, or other aggressive and disruptive behaviors that occur at work. This study aims to develop and validate a revision of the Korean Workplace Violence Scale (KWVS®13), based on the first edition of the Korean Workplace Violence Scale (KWVS-24), and to provide practical applications and guidelines for the Korean workplace environment.
Methods: The revised KWVS®13 was developed by restructuring the 24-item KWVS through a review process involving eight experts. To validate the reliability and validity of KWVS®13, a self-administered survey comprising KWVS®13, burnout, and depression scales was conducted among 359 service industry workers. KWVS®13 was reclassified, and its reliability and validity were assessed. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to establish sex-specific cutoff values (normal vs. risk) of the scale.
Results: KWVS®13 consists of 13 items across four subscales: "psychological and sexual violence from customers" (4 items), "psychological and sexual violence from supervisors or coworkers" (4 items), "physical assault from customers, supervisors, or coworkers" (2 items), and "organizational protective system for workplace violence" (3 items). We found that KWVS®13 shows relatively good validity (content validity ratio for content validity: 0.888; success rate of item convergent and discriminant validity: 100%, and significant correlation coefficient with burnout (r = 0.115-0.83, p < 0.05) and depression (r = 0.098-0.348, p < 0.05) with the exception of Organizational Violence Protection System for Workplace Violence) and reliability (Cronbach's alpha: 0.827-0.860). The reference values for determining risk groups according to the intensity of exposure to workplace violence are presented separately by sex.
Conclusions: KWVS®13 is a robust and useful measurement tool to objectively and quantitatively assess the intensity and magnitude of workplace violence. It incorporates important considerations for workplace violence assessment and provides a reliable framework for evaluating workplace violence in various professional settings.
期刊介绍:
Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (AOEM) is an open access journal that considers original contributions relevant to occupational and environmental medicine and related fields, in the form of original articles, review articles, short letters and case reports. AOEM is aimed at clinicians and researchers working in the wide-ranging discipline of occupational and environmental medicine. Topic areas focus on, but are not limited to, interactions between work and health, covering occupational and environmental epidemiology, toxicology, hygiene, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, management, organization and policy. As the official journal of the Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (KSOEM), members and authors based in the Republic of Korea are entitled to a discounted article-processing charge when they publish in AOEM.