Assessing the Validity of a Single-item Measure of Exposure to Workplace Bullying: A Mixed-Methods Study Among Swedish Workers

Abstract Importance Workplace bullying poses significant risks to mental and occupational health, highlighting the need for efficient measurement in surveys and large-scale observational studies. Objective The aim of this mixed-methods study was to evaluate the validity of the PP-item, a brief measure of personal persecution at work, used to assess workplace bullying, included in the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH). Methods Using two samples based on SLOSH 2008 and SLOSH 2023 (N=445 and N=1148, respectively), the theoretical properties of the PP-item were assessed through qualitative content analysis of self-reported experiences of personal persecution, while psychometric properties were evaluated by examining convergence with established measures, as well as examining its discriminant and predictive performance. Results We found that the PP-item captures experiences that reflect meaningful categories of bullying behaviours and that it showed moderate agreement with established measures of workplace bullying (self-labelling, κ=0.6; Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised, κ=0.5). The PP-item was able to distinguish bullying from workplace violence and predicted subsequent symptoms of depression (odds ratio: 4.6, 95% confidence interval 2.5-8.7) and anxiety (odds ratio 3.1, 95% confidence interval 1.9-4.9) in an expected manner. However, the PP-item appeared more sensitive to person-related than work-related negative acts and potentially included also lower-threshold negative interactions, showing moderate correlations with workplace conflicts. Conclusions The findings from both quantitative and qualitative analyses support the PP-item as a valid tool for capturing exposure to negative workplace interactions, that are largely aligned with the theoretical construct of workplace bullying. Implications for practice While the overall findings support the validity of the PP-item, it may be useful to consider distinct features, such as exposure frequency and duration, when using the PP-item.