Measuring precarious employment in times of crisis: the revised Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES) in Spain

Objective. This study examines the psychometric properties of the revised Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES-2010) in a context of economic crisis and growing unemployment. Methods. Data correspond to salaried workers with a contract (n = 4,750) from the second Psychosocial Work Environment Surv...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Vives Vergara, Alejandra, 1971-, González, Francisca, Moncada i Lluís, Salvador, 1957-, Llorens Serrano, Clara, Benach, Joan
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:España
Institución:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repositorio:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/69203
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/69203
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gaceta.2015.06.008
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Psychometrics
Employment
Employment precariousness
Spain
Descripción
Sumario:Objective. This study examines the psychometric properties of the revised Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES-2010) in a context of economic crisis and growing unemployment. Methods. Data correspond to salaried workers with a contract (n = 4,750) from the second Psychosocial Work Environment Survey (Spain, 2010). Analyses included acceptability, scale score distributions, Cronbach's alpha coefficient and exploratory factor analysis. Results. Response rates were 80% or above, scores were widely distributed with reductions in floor effects for temporariness among permanent workers and for vulnerability. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were 0.70 or above; exploratory factor analysis confirmed the theoretical allocation of 21 out of 22 items. Conclusion. The revised version of the EPRES demonstrated good metric properties and improved sensitivity to worker vulnerability and employment instability among permanent workers. Furthermore, it was sensitive to increased levels of precariousness in some dimensions despite decreases in others, demonstrating responsiveness to the context of the economic crisis affecting the Spanish labour market.