The Health and Safety Executive Stress Indicator Tool is a short questionnaire developed in the UK for the screening of common psychosocial risk factors leading to work-related stress. Previous research showed that in both the UK and Italy this test fits the same seven-factor solution. Building upon previous findings and by using multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis we investigated the degree of measurement equivalence of the Italian version of the test with its original UK version. Furthermore, we advanced the validation of the tool in Italy by exploring the correlations of its subscales with stress-related outcomes. Two samples of workers were available for analyses: 1,298 Italian employees of private-sector organizations and a sample of 7,589 UK employees from organizations of the same type. Results replicated previous findings: A 7-factor solution of the Indicator Tool was found to be equivalent across the Italian and UK samples. Furthermore, the analyses supported factor variance and factor covariance equivalence in addition to metric equivalence. The Indicator Tool subscales showed significant correlations in the expected direction with stress-related outcomes. The Italian version of the Indicator Tool behaves very consistently with its UK version and may be used for the screening of psychosocial risks in Italian workplaces.

Purpose. The present study aims to explore the relationship between organizational age stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy. First, we intend to test the measurement invariance of Henkens (2005)'s age stereotypes scale across two age group, respectively under 50 years and 50 years and older. Then, the moderator role of age groups in the relationship between age stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy is investigated.Methodology. The survey involved a large sample of 4667 Italian bank sector's employees. Findings.The results shows the invariance of the three dimensional structure of organizational stereotypes toward older workers scale: productivity, reliability and adaptability. Furthermore, the moderation is confirmed: the relationship between organizational age stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy is significant only for older respondents. Research limitations/implications. Further research is necessary in order to verify the generalization of the results to other sectors and countries.Practical implications. The study suggests the importance to emphasize the positive characteristics of older workers and to reduce the presence of negative age stereotypes in the workplace, especially in order to foster the occupational self-efficacy of older workers.Originality/value. Our findings are especially relevant in view of the lack of evidence about the relationship between age stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy.

Abstract. The Health and Safety Executive Stress Indicator Tool (SIT) is a 35-item questionnaire to assess exposure to seven common psychosocial factors involved in the genesis of work-related stress. Recent work conducted in the UK has provided evidence that the SIT may be reduced to a 25-item questionnaire (the SIT-25) showing the same seven-factor model and criterion-related validity of the SIT. The SIT is the most widely used tool to assess work-related stress factors in Italy, with benchmark (normative) data managed by the Italian Workers’ Compensation Authority. Thus, we conducted two studies to further test whether in Italy the SIT may be reduced to the SIT-25. In Study 1 a heterogeneous sample of workers (N = 588, 39.5% females) was used to further test the seven-factor model of the SIT-25 and its criterion-related validity with mental well-being. In Study 2 two new samples of workers (N = 625, 69.8% females; and N = 344, 3.2% females) from health and metal-mechanical sectors were used to assess the degree of measurement invariance of the SIT-25 and further test its criterion-related validity. Overall the results showed that the SIT-25 data fit the postulated seven-factor solution and that the reduced subscales (i.e., Demands, Control, Relationships, and Role) have the same criterion-related validity as their longer version. Additionally, the SIT-25 showed strong measurement invariance in the two different samples of workers of Study 2. These results provide further encouraging evidence that the SIT-25 may be effectively used in place of its longer version.

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