Abstract
Objectives: This study was conducted to develop a dental hygienist's job satisfaction scale and to evaluate its validity and reliability. Methods: A total of 34 preliminary questions were composed based on the components commonly defined in previous studies and in-depth interviews. Results: The results of the study were practice activity, professional satisfaction, income, working conditions, patient relations, and co-worker relations using the exploratory factor analysis. Goodness of fit of the model assessed using confirmatory factor analysis generally met the criteria. On verification of the internal consistency, the Cronbach's alpha for the factors were as follows: 0.821 for practice activity, 0.822 for professional satisfaction, 0.847 for income, 0.765 for working condition, 0.743 for patient relations, and 0.747 for co-worker relations, which implied that the measurement tool was reliable. Through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, a total of 24 items for six factors: six items for practice activity factors, four items for professional satisfaction, three items for income, four items for working conditions, three items for patient relationships, and three items for co-worker relations. Conclusions: Based on the aforementioned results, the validity and reliability of the dental hygienist's job satisfaction measurement tool were satisfactory. Thus, it may be used for assessing the job satisfaction of the dental hygienists in future.
Figures & Tables
Fig. 1.Model of confirmatory factor analysis
