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

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.