Development of a Questionnaire for Measuring Effort-Reward Imbalance in Household and Family Work

Siegrists concept of effort-reward imbalance (ERI) had been shown to be associated with a broad range of health impairments, in particular cardiovascular diseases and depression. The original questionnaire was designed to assess ERI in the field of occupational work. This paper reports on a newly developed questionnaire for the assessment of ERI in household and family work. Analogous to the original version, it is divided into two components:(i) dysbalance of effort and reward (extrinsic component), and (ii) overcommitment (intrinsic components). The questionnaire was tested with data drawn from a clinical sample of mothers (n = 567) in rehabilitation clinics. Factor analyses have reproduced the two main dimensions "effort" and "reward". Relevant aspects of reward at home were (i) meaningfulness, (ii) social gratification, (iii) appreciation from the spouse, and (iv) affection for the child. Finally a 19-item questionnaire for assessing ERI in household and family work (ERI-M) and a four-item measure for measuring parental overcommitment (Over-M) are available. The psychometric properties of both instruments are good to satisfactory.