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Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (short version)

UWES-9
psychologysocial sciencesFree for research use

A 9-item short form of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale measuring work engagement across three dimensions: Vigor, Dedication, and Absorption.

Items
9
Response format
7-point frequency scale
Version
1.0
Subscales
3

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Work engagement was measured using the 9-item Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9; Schaufeli, Bakker, & Salanova, 2006), which assesses Vigor, Dedication, and Absorption on a 7-point frequency scale. Internal consistency in the pooled validation sample was α = .92.

Reliability & validation

Validation population
Pooled cross-national samples (N = 14,521) across 10 countries in Schaufeli, Bakker, & Salanova (2006)
Cronbach's α
0.92
subscale alphas
0.77–0.85

Subscales

VigorDedicationAbsorption

Response anchors

Never · Almost never (A few times a year or less) · Rarely (Once a month or less) · Sometimes (A few times a month) · Often (Once a week) · Very often (A few times a week) · Always (Every day)

Known limitations

Free for non-commercial research use; commercial use requires a license from the authors. Three-factor structure is sometimes supplanted by a one-factor solution in applied samples — inspect the factor structure in your data before interpreting subscales separately.

Original citation

Schaufeli, W. B., Bakker, A. B., Salanova, M. (2006). The measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire: A cross-national study. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 66(4), 701-716.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164405282471

Questions researchers ask

What does the UWES-9 measure?

A 9-item short form of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale measuring work engagement across three dimensions: Vigor, Dedication, and Absorption.

How many items does the UWES-9 have?

The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (short version) (UWES-9) has 9 items across 3 subscales: Vigor, Dedication, Absorption.

Is the UWES-9 free to use?

The UWES-9 is free to use for non-commercial academic research. You don't need to pay a license fee, but you should always cite the original publication.

Is the UWES-9 reliable?

Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.92. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.

Who developed the UWES-9, and how do I cite it?

Schaufeli, W. B., Bakker, A. B., Salanova, M. (2006). The measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire: A cross-national study. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 66(4), 701-716. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164405282471

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Library entry verified January 2024. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.