Description

The Verbal Abuse Scale (VAS-79) is an assessment instrument designed to evaluate verbal abuse and workplace violence, particularly among healthcare professionals and nursing staff. It examines both the frequency and severity of verbal abuse incidents, as well as their potential physical and psychological consequences for employees.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the VAS-79 is to systematically assess employees’ exposure to verbal aggression, threats, abusive behavior, and social exclusion in the workplace. It also aims to capture the extent to which such experiences may affect psychological well-being, occupational functioning, and the broader work experience.

Scale Structure

The VAS-79 was developed by Mandernio and Banton (1994) and consists of 79 items, organized into 11 groups of closed- and open-ended questions and distributed across five subscales.

The items address the frequency and severity of verbal abuse, as well as different forms of abusive behavior that may occur within the workplace.

Scoring and Statistical Analysis

Responses are evaluated using a five-point Likert scale, with lower values corresponding to less severe or less frequent experiences and higher values indicating more severe or more frequent incidents.

Higher overall scores indicate greater exposure to verbal abuse in the workplace, whereas lower scores reflect less frequent exposure. Depending on the study design, results may be analyzed both as an overall score and separately across the individual subscales.

Validity and Reliability

The VAS-79 has been used as an instrument for investigating verbal abuse in occupational settings. The Greek translation was carried out by Malliarou et al. (2015) with the aim of adapting the instrument to the Greek linguistic and cultural context.

According to the reported findings, the questionnaire demonstrated very high internal consistency, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.98, indicating a high degree of consistency among its items.

Applications

The VAS-79 may be used in studies examining verbal abuse, workplace violence, occupational burnout, psychological burden, and workplace safety. It is particularly relevant in hospitals and other healthcare settings, where employees may be exposed to verbal aggression from patients, relatives, or other individuals within the work environment.

References

Malliarou, M., Karathanasi, K., Sarafis, P., Koutelekos, I., Prezerakos, P., & Zyga, S. (2015). Greek translation of the Verbal Abuse Scale (VAS-GR). Perioperative Nursing, 4(2), 73–82.

Rikos, N., Telli, D., Hatzinikolaou, A., Mantikou, D., Rovithis, M., Fourmouzi, M., & Linardakis, M. (2022). Nurses’ exposure to verbal abuse at a university hospital in Crete, Greece. Nursing Practice Today, 9(1), X–X.