Short on Distinction: A comparative Study on Questionnaires for Psychosocial Risk Assessment

Psychosocial risk assessments (PSRA) are a major element of occupational safety and health management, yet conceptual and empirical differences between different measurement tools remain unclear from current scientific evidence. This study provides a comparative investigation of three widely used PSRA questionnaires – the Questionnaire for Psychosocial Risk Assessment (QPRA), the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ), and Welliba PSRA – to investigate their conceptual overlap and psychometric performance. Data were collected from a cross-sectional sample of N = 98 participants who completed all three questionnaires. Pearson correlation coefficients were computed to assess relationships of scales within and between questionnaires, examining their convergent and discriminant validity. The results revealed substantial intercorrelations among conceptually related scales within and between all questionnaires, supporting convergent validity. However, numerous strong associations were observed between theoretically distinct constructs, highlighting poor discriminant validity across the tools. Hence, the investigated questionnaires appear to uniformly measure psychosocial risk as a general construct, while the lack of specificity outlines that their utility to assess delimited hazards is limited. The findings underscore the need for psychometric refinement of PSRA instruments and suggest that practitioners should supplement quantitative assessments with qualitative methods to ensure a rigorous and effective risk management process.