Psychometric properties of the Negative Acts Questionnaire for the detection of workplace bullying: an evaluation of the instrument with a sample of state health care workers

Objective: to evaluate psychometric properties of the Negative Acts Questionnaire – Revised (NAQ-R), an instrument for detecting bullying, and to investigate the correlation between bullying dimensions and the variables job satisfaction and self-reported health according to sex. Methods: cross-sectional study with factor analysis of a sample of 677 workers from state healthcare units. Data were collected at face-to-face interviews using a questionnaire predominantly focused on the respondents’ sociodemographic and employment-related characteristics as well as the 22 NAQ-R questions. Results: two dimensions, or latent variables, were identified, namely personal bullying and work-related bullying. The work-related bullying dimension was associated with self-reported health in men (rho=0.33; p=0.02). Likewise, personal bullying was also found to be associated with self-reported health in men (rho=0.39; p<0.01) and with job satisfaction (rho=0.28; p=0.05). Among women, the only dimension found, compatible with personal bullying, was correlated with job satisfaction (rho=0.37; p<0.01) and self-reported health (rho=0.19; p<0.01). Conclusion: NAQ-R has an acceptable performance for detecting workplace bullying, proving itself capable of identifying the negative acts that characterize this type of abuse.