Psychometric Properties of Persian Version of the Short-Form Workplace Social Capital Questionnaire for Female Health Workers

BACKGROUND: The workplace social capital is one of the important features of clinical work environment that improves the productivity and quality of services and safety through trust and social participation. Evaluation of workplace social capital requires a valid and reliable scale. The short-form workplace social capital questionnaire developed by Kouvonen has long been used to evaluate the workplace social capital. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the questionnaire among a group of female Iranian health care workers. METHODS: The Persian version of the short-form questionnaire of workplace social capital was finalized after translation and back-translation. 500 female health care workers completed the questionnaire. Then, the content validity and the construct validity of the questionnaire were assessed. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by Cronbach's α, θ, and McDonald's Ω. The construct reliability and ICC were also evaluated. RESULTS: Based on the maximum likelihood exploratory factor analysis (n=250) and confirmatory factor analysis (n=250), two factors were identified. The factors could explain 65% of the total variance observed. The model had an acceptable fit: GFI=0.953, CFI=0.973, IFI=0.974, NFI=0.953, PNFI=0.522, RAMSEA=0.090, CMIN/DF=2.751, RMR=0.042. Convergent and divergent validity as well as internal consistency and construct reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed. CONCLUSION: The Persian version of Kouvonen workplace social capital has acceptable validity and reliability. The questionnaire can thus be used in future studies to assess the workplace social capital in Iranian health care workers.