French Version of Workplace Violence Survey Adapted for Home Care Staff

Workplace violence against formal caregivers in home care settings can affect staff health, working conditions, and the quality of care delivered to patients. A research team has now translated and adapted a German questionnaire, the Survey of Violence Experienced by Staff German version Revised (SOVES-G-R), for use in French-speaking home care environments, producing a new instrument called SOVES-Fr-HC. The work is published in BMC Health Services Research as an open access research article.

The original SOVES-G-R documents the frequency, context, and consequences of workplace violence experienced by staff. It also embeds two additional scales: the Perception of Aggression Scale short version (POAS-S) and the Perception of Intervention Skills Scale (POIS). The study aimed to translate and adapt the full instrument for French-speaking home care, assess the face validity of the resulting SOVES-Fr-HC, and examine the factor structure and internal consistency of its French POAS-S and POIS components.

The researchers used a forward–backward translation procedure with contextual adaptation, followed by review by a panel of eight professionals. To gather psychometric data, they then conducted an electronic cross-sectional survey among formal caregivers working with care receivers living at home in French-speaking Switzerland between March and November 2022.

Of 177 respondents, 175 met the eligibility criteria. Complete data were available for the POAS-S from 174 participants and for the POIS from 169 participants. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test whether the previously published factor structures of the embedded scales held in the French data.

The expert panel supported the adapted questionnaire’s face validity, indicating that the translated items appeared appropriate and relevant to professionals in the field. However, neither of the published factor structures showed satisfactory fit in the confirmatory analyses, prompting the team to turn to exploratory methods.

Exploratory factor analysis with oblimin rotation suggested a three-factor solution for the POAS-S that explained 31.1% of the variance, with a total omega of 0.64, a measure of internal consistency that falls short of commonly desired levels. For the POIS, a two-factor solution explained 47.9% of the variance, with a total omega of 0.88, indicating strong internal consistency of the total score. Reallocating one POIS item to a different factor improved the model fit.

The authors caution that the revised factor structures were explored and subsequently tested within the same analytical samples, which means they require independent confirmation in new data before they can be considered established. They also note that total-score reliability does not establish the reliability of individual subscales, an important distinction for anyone intending to use the subscale scores in practice or research.

Overall, the study concludes that the SOVES-Fr-HC was systematically translated and adapted for French-speaking home care and achieved expert-supported face validity, but that the POAS-S showed limited internal consistency and an unresolved factor structure. The findings do not establish comprehensive validation of the adapted questionnaire. Further content-validity assessment, reliability testing, and independent psychometric evaluation of the embedded scales are needed before the instrument can be recommended for routine use as a validated measurement tool.

Subject of Research: Translation and psychometric evaluation of a workplace violence survey for French-speaking home care caregivers

Article Title: Translation and adaptation of the Survey of Violence Experienced by Staff for the French-Speaking Home Care setting (SOVES-Fr-HC)

Article References: Lucien, B., Zwakhalen, S., Busnel, C., & Hahn, S. (2026). Translation and adaptation of the Survey of Violence Experienced by Staff for the French-Speaking Home Care setting (SOVES-Fr-HC). BMC Health Services Research. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-026-15990-1

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12913-026-15990-1

Keywords: workplace violence, home care, questionnaire validation, SOVES-Fr-HC, psychometrics, factor analysis, internal consistency, French-speaking Switzerland, caregivers, cross-sectional survey, Translation, adaptation