Construction and validation of mental health measure inventory for teleworkers

Abstract

Objective: constructing and validating an instrument for measuring the mental health of professionals working in telework. Methods: methodological study applied to 456 teleworkers from different work areas and regions of Brazil for the validation process. Data were evaluated using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis and the evaluation of internal consistency by Cronbach’s alpha. Results: the instrument consisted of 39 items and the factor analysis revealed the existence of six factors distributed in these items. These factors explain 59% of the variance of the construct, have Cronbach’s alpha indexes greater than 0.75 and items with factor loads greater than 0.30 and are negative aspects of telework, positive aspects of telework, work overload, ergonomic aspects, management and communication in teleworking and consequences of teleworking. Conclusions: the instrument in question received positive evaluation from experts and validators and the statistical tests performed demonstrated valid psychometric properties; the six factors identified showed good psychometric qualities and corroborate with the mental health indicators found in the literature.