Measuring physical, cognitive, and emotional aspects of exhaustion with the BOSS II-short version – results from a representative population-based study in Germany

Abstract

Background: The aim of the present study was the construction and psychometric evaluation of a shortened version of the Burnout Screening Scales II (BOSS II), a measure for exhaustion and burnout. Methods: To this end, among a representative sample of the German general population (N = 2429, 52.9% women), we shortened the scale from 30 to 15 items applying ant-colony-optimization, and calculated item statistics of the short version (BOSS II-short). To estimate its reliability, we used McDonald’s Omega (ω). To demonstrate validity, we compared the correlation between the BOSS II-short and the BOSS II, as well as their associations with depression, anxiety, and quality of life. Furthermore, we evaluated model fit and measurement invariance across respondent age and gender in confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). Finally, we present adapted norm values. Results: The CFA showed an excellent model fit (χ2 = 223.037, df = 87, p