Welcome to the network for scientific research and risk assessment with the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ).

International studies show that exposures to psychosocial risks are important characteristics of work. There is clear evidence that aspects and levels of job strain vary between countries, branches and professions. COPSOQ is a well proven instrument to gather valid and reliable information about main risk factors.

The setting, implementation and evaluation of preventive actions at workplace level and also preventive policies in general need systematic collection, recording, analysis and dissemination of key information on the exposures of workers to psychosocial factors. This is a major challenge due to the diversity of labour in our days and the scientific and technical requirements to generate useful information.

The Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) represents a comprehensive achievement, because is not linked to a singular theory of work strain. Developed in 2000 by T.S. Kristensen and V. Borg it has received an important international recognition and dissemination in very few years. Conceptually, it includes the main dimensions of the most influential psychosocial theories at work, including the Job-Strain, Demand-Control-Support and Effort-Reward-Imbalance models, but also other theories and aspects ignored in previous tools, for instance emotional demands or role clarity. This makes COPSOQ useful in any workplace either in the industrial or in the services branch. Among psychosocial risk assessment tools COPSOQ is unique, because it includes population-based reference values to assess the need for action and to help the decision making process on preventive measures at the workplace level.

COPSOQ is available in more than 25 languages

Until today COPSOQ is available in more than 25 languages. It has been used in thousands of enterprise-based risk assessments of psychosocial factors and in many scientific research projects including comparative studies among various countries in Europe and abroad.