Fan H, Wang M, Shao X, Jia Y, Wang C and Wang W*
Background: In order to know the structure of the violence to medical staff and its personality correlates, we designed two studies in Chinese university students and the relatives of patients consulting comprehensive hospitals. Methods: First, we invited 457 participants to answer a 68-item matrix measuring the violence to medical staff, and their answers were dealt with both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Second, 118 participants aged 18-20 years old (Younger) and 118 aged 26-45 (Older) were tested with the VMSQ, the Parker Personality Measure, and the Plutchik - van Praag Depression Inventory.
Results: A structure-validated Violence to Medical Staff Questionnaire (VMSQ) was developed with 34 items under seven scales. The Older scored significantly higher than the Younger did on VMSQ Violence terminator, Physical abuse initiator, and Verbal abuse initiator, but lower on Sympathy to victims and Knowledge of violence, and on Schizotypal, Avoidant, and Dependent personality disorder functioning styles. In Younger, Paranoid predicted the Verbal abuse initiator, Schizotypal the Physical abuse initiator, Antisocial the Violence terminator, Borderline the Sympathy to victims, Avoidant the Physical abuse initiator, and Dependent the Sympathy to victims; in Older, Passive- Aggressive the Physical abuse initiator, Narcissistic the Dissatisfaction with service, and Obsessive-Compulsive the Sympathy to victims.
Conclusion: We developed a structure-validated questionnaire to measure the violence, and found that personality features were associated with different violence structures in two different age groups, which might help to prevent medical staff from violence in medical settings.