Work-related recovery opportunities: testing scale properties and validity in relation to health

Objectives Recovery opportunities allow employees to recuperate from work and diminish load effects. The aims of this study are to present a scale for measuring recovery opportunities, study its psychometric properties and its relationship with health. Methods Data from three Dutch worker samples were used with response rates over 60%. Sample 1 contained 6,863 employees working in a wide variety of jobs in 114 organizations. Sample 2 contained data from 992 mental health care workers from ten different organizations. Sample 3 were 436 employees working in several specialized health care clinics. Results Internal consistency of the nine-item recovery opportunities scale is good. Content validity of recovery opportunities, especially how it discriminates from other aspects of job control, is also good. Recovery opportunities show significant effects on work-related fatigue (need for recovery), sleep complaints, and health complaints, but not on future absenteeism. Conclusion The recovery opportunities scale has good reliability and shows good content-, construct- and criterion-related validity in three samples of workers that differ in amount of heterogeneity.