Measuring work engagement among community health workers in Sierra Leone: Validating the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale

This study examines the concept of volunteer work engagement in a sample of 334 community health workers in Bonthe District, Sierra Leone. Structural equation modelling was used to validate both the 9-item and the 17-item Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9 and UWES-17, respectively). Results assessing the UWES-17 invalidated the three-factor structure within this cohort of community health workers, as high correlations were found between latent factors. Findings for the validity of the UWES-9 were largely consistent with those of the UWES-17. Model fit for the UWES-9 were generally equivalent for the one-factor, three-factor, and bifactor solutions, however the three-factor model was once again rejected due to high factor correlations. Based on these results, the current sample provides evidence that work engagement is best represented as a unidimensional construct in this context. Findings are considered alongside previous research to offer support for the utilization of the shortened UWES-9 in this context, as it appears to provide a good representation of work engagement and possess a parsimonious unidimensional scoring scheme.