Reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Survey Work–Home Interaction – NijmeGen, the SWING (SWING-J)

ABSTRACT

This study sought to validate the Japanese version of the Survey Work–Home Interaction – NijmeGen, the SWING, which assesses multi-dimensional work–family interaction by differentiating between the direction and quality of influence. We translated the SWING into the Japanese language, the SWING-J. A back-translation procedure confirmed that the translation was appropriate. A total of 2701 dual-earner parents with preschool children (1193 men and 1508 women) were surveyed. The complete questionnaire included the SWING-J, job and family domain variables, and well-being indicators. The reliability and factorial and convergent validity of the used measures were examined. As the results, four dimensions (i.e. work-to-family negative spillover, family-to-work negative spillover, work-to-family positive spillover and family-to-work positive spillover) were determined by an exploratory factor analysis. A series of confirmatory factor analyses suggested that the hypothesized four-factor model provided a reasonably good fit to the data. Convergent validity was generally supported by the expected correlations of work–family spillovers with the possible predictors and consequences. Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the four subscales of the SWING-J were satisfactory (0.75–0.86). The present study confirmed that the Japanese version of the SWING is an adequate tool to measure positive and negative spillover between working life and family life among Japanese workers.

RESUMEN

Este estudio pretende validar la versión japonesa del Estudio de Interacción Trabajo-casa –NijmeGen, the SWING, lo cual evalúa la interacción multi-dimensional de trabajo-familia diferenciando entre la dirección y la calidad de influencia. Tradujimos el ‘SWING’ al idioma japonés, el ‘SWING-J’. Un procedimiento de la traducción inversa confirmó que la traducción fue apropiada. Un total de 2.701 padres de la familia (que trabajan tanto el marido como la mujer) con niños preescolares (1.193 hombres y 1.508 mujeres) fueron estudiados. El cuestionario completo incluyó el SWING-J, las variables de dominio trabajo y familia, y los indicadores de bienestar. La fiabilidad, y la validez factorial y convergente de las medidas usadas fueron examinadas. Como los resultados, cuatro dimensiones (p.ej., efectos secundarios negativos de trabajo-a-familia, efectos secundarios negativos de familia-a-trabajo, efectos secundarios positivos de trabajo-a-familia, y efectos secundarios positivos de familia-a-trabajo) fueron determinadas por un análisis factorial exploratorio. Una serie de análisis factoriales confirmatorios ha sugerido que el modelo hipotético de cuatro factores proporcionó un buen ajuste razonable a los datos. La validez convergente fue generalmente sostenida por las correlaciones esperadas de los efectos secundarios trabajo-familia con los posibles predictores y consecuencias. Los coeficientes del Alfa de Cronbach de cuatro subescalas del SWING-J fueron satisfactorios (0,75 a 0,86). El presente estudio confirmó que la versión japonesa del SWING es una herramienta adecuada para medir los efectos secundarios positivos y negativos entre la vida laboral y la vida familiar de los trabajadores japoneses.

KEYWORDS:

• Japanese
• reliability
• scale development
• work–family negative spillover
• work–family positive spillover
• validity

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• Japonesa
• Fiabilidad
• Validez
• derrame negativo de trabajo-familia
• derrame positivo de trabajo-familia
• desarrollo de escala

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Kyoko Shimada is assistant professor of Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Sociology, Toyo University, Japan. She graduated and took her MPH and PhD at mental health, School of Public Health, The University of Tokyo. Her research interests include job stress and work engagement, work–family spillover and its crossover.

Akihito Shimazu is associate professor of Mental Health at School of Public health, the University of Tokyo, Japan. His research interests include job stress and coping, stress management at workplace, work engagement, workaholism, work–home interface and the application of IT for workplace intervention. He has published on a wide array of topics in journals such as Cross-Cultural Research, Journal of Behavioral Medicine, International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, Social Science & Medicine and Work & Stress.

Noriro Kawakami, MD, is a professor of mental health, School of Public Health, The University of Tokyo, Japan. He graduated Gifu University School of Medicine, and took his PhD at Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo. His major areas of research include epidemiology of mental disorders, mental health at work and global mental health. He published more than 350 research papers concerning a broad range of topics, such as epidemiology of job stress and its health effects, workplace stress management interventions, as well as epidemiology of mental disorders in workplace and community, social inequality in health, smoking, cancer and diabetes.

Prof. Dr Sabine Geurts is a full professor of work and organizational psychology at the Behavioural Science Institute at the Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands). She is a senior researcher and lecturer in occupational health psychology. Her research focuses on high-quality research in occupational health psychology. Her scientific interests include work effort, work stress, fatigue, recovery, sleep, working time arrangements, work–home interaction and more recently sport and exercise psychology. She has published around 100 papers and book chapters in these areas, and serves as a Consulting Editor for the journal Work & Stress. She is also head of the master's degree program of Psychology of Work, Organization and Health.

ORCID

Kyoko Shimada http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1043-5940

Akihito Shimazu http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7172-0043

Norito Kawakami http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1080-2720

Additional information

Funding

This research for this article funded by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science [Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)19700536].