DECORE-21: Assessment of occupational stress in police. Confirmatory factor analysis of the original model

There is scarce research on stress in Spanish police officers and on the use of instruments to assess this construct in this professional group. In Spain, the DECORE questionnaire has been one of the most used. Nevertheless, it had not been previously applied to police officers. The aim of this study was to analyze both the construct validity and the reliability of the original model of 44 items. A cross-sectional design and a non-probabilistic quota sampling were used. A total of 223 Spanish police officers participated. 202 police personnel were men (90.6%) and 21 were women (9.4%). The average age was 41 years old (SD = 7.52). These police officers answered the DECORE questionnaire. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was carried out. The results showed an unsatisfactory adjustment using the original model of 44 items. A final solution of 21 items and four factors was formulated with both suitable validity and reliability indexes. In this model, 23 items that did not weigh highly in any of the four factors were removed. The DECORE-21 questionnaire is recommended to assess work-related stress in police officers.