Occupational Stress Inventory (OSI-R)

Introduction

The Occupational Stress Inventory (OSI-R) quantitatively evaluates the occupational stress level of individuals and organizations, the main sources of occupational stress, individual stress reactions and individual coping resources.

Objects and methods

I. Research objects and detection tools

OSI-R is divided into three questionnaires, each of which includes multiple sub-items:

(1) Occupational role questionnaire (ORQ): including six sub-items: role overload (RO), role insuficiency (R1), role ambiguity (RA), role boundary (RB), responsibility (R), and physical environment (PE).

(2) Personal strain questionnaire (PSQ), including four sub-items: vocational strain (VS), psychological strain (PSY), interpersonal strain (IS) and physical strain (PHS).

(3) Personal coping resources questionnaire (PRQ), including four sub-items: recreation (RE), self-care (SC), social support (SS) and rational/cognitive (RC).

Each of the above sub-items contains 10 items, a total of 140 items, and each item is scored according to five levels. The higher the scores of the vocational task and personal strain questionnaires, the higher the level of strain. The higher the score of the personal coping resources questionnaire, the stronger the ability to cope with strain and the lower the level of strain.

II. Research Methods

The original scores of the occupational stress norm were converted into a total score with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10.

The conversion was performed according to the formula T=50+10×(χ-χ̃)/s (where χ is the original score of each sub-item of the three questionnaires, χ̃ is the mean of the normative sample, and s is the standard deviation).

The basic concept of psychometrics is that human psychological quality obeys the normal distribution. Therefore, according to the mean and standard deviation of the normative score, the various questionnaires and sub-items of the OSI-R scale can be divided into different levels.

The scorers within the range of χ̃±s accounted for about 68.27% of the total population, that is, the score values within this range are defined as the normal range. The score values within the range of χ̃±1.96s accounted for about 95% of the total population, and the score values outside this range are defined as the abnormal range. Scores in the range of χ̃±s to χ̃±1.96s are between 68.27% and 95% of the total, and it is stipulated that the scores in this range are relatively abnormal. Therefore, the scores are divided into five levels.

Since the higher the scores of the occupational tasks and individual stress response questionnaires, the heavier the occupational tasks and the higher the degree of stress response, in these two questionnaires, individuals with scores higher than χ̃+1.96s (accounting for 2.5% of the total) show that the occupational tasks are too heavy and the degree of stress response is too high; those with scores in the range of χ̃+1.96s to χ̃+s show that the occupational tasks are heavy and the degree of stress response is high; those with scores in the range of χ̃±s have moderate occupational tasks and stress response; those with scores lower than χ̃-s show that there is no occupational stress and stress response.

In the individual coping resources questionnaire, the higher the score, the stronger the individual's ability to cope with stress. Therefore, in this questionnaire, those with scores below χ̃-1.96s show weak coping resources; those with scores between χ̃-1.96s and χ̃-s have weak coping resources; those with scores between χ̃±s have strong coping resources; and those with scores above χ̃+s have strong coping resources.

Results

I. Overall norms and male and female norms

Table 1 shows the overall norms and male and female norms for each questionnaire and sub-item scores.

Table 1, Overall and gender norms of occupational stress among professional and technical personnel

II. Establishment of the normative classification standard for occupational stress of professional and technical personnel

The results of the conversion of the original scores show (Table 2) that in the questionnaire of occupational tasks and individual stress reactions, those with a T value equal to or higher than 70 points indicate that the individual's occupational tasks are too heavy and the degree of stress reaction is too high. Those with a T value between 60 and 69 points show that the occupational tasks are heavy and the degree of stress reaction is high. Those with a T value between 40 and 59 points have moderate occupational tasks and stress reactions, which are within the normal range. Those with a T value below 40 points do not show occupational stress and stress reactions.

In the questionnaire of coping resources, a T value below 30 points indicates that the coping resources are very weak. Those with a T value between 30 and 39 points have weak coping resources. Those with T scores between 40 and 59 have strong coping resources and are within the normal range. Those with scores of 60 or above have strong coping resources.

Table 2 Occupational stress grading evaluation criteria