Citation

Czakert JP, Reif J, Glazer S, Berger R. Cyberpsychol. Behav. Soc. Netw. 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/cyber.2020.0856

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

As nonessential workers are working from home and connected to colleagues through means of computer technology, cyberbullying, which has only recently been investigated in workplace settings, is likely to become more prevalent. Organizations are also reconsidering work structures that would keep workers remote. Workplace cyberbullying (WCB) can have a detrimental impact on victims' mental health, more than traditional face-to-face bullying. However, there is a dearth of validated assessments to monitor WCB for use in different countries. The Cyberbullying Behavior Questionnaire Short version (CBQ-S) from Jönsson et al. is a validated short scale that seems simple and practical enough to integrate in widely applied multiscale employee surveys. Previously, the CBQ-S has been only validated in Sweden (in the Swedish language) and United States (in English). This study performs a construct validation of the CBQ-S in Spain (in Spanish) and Germany (in German), to equip businesses and organizations operating in those countries with an effective valid tool to measure WCB. Two hundred nine German and 249 Spanish workers (N = 458) participated in a cross-sectional survey. Exploratory and multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses suggested a one-dimensional structure of the scale, supporting configural invariance; metric and partial scalar invariance was also supported. Latent means differences revealed significantly higher mean scores for the Spanish sample (Cohen's d = 0.61). WCB correlated positively with workplace bullying, supporting concurrent convergent validity. WCB also correlated positively with role conflict, role ambiguity, bullying in general, stress, turnover intention, and negatively with job satisfaction, indicating criterion validity.

Language: en

Keywords

cross-cultural validation; measurement invariance; workplace cyberbullying