Unlocking resilience in the face of user aggression: Preliminary psychometric evaluation of the Italian Trauma-related Coping Self-Efficacy Scale among hospital health care professionals

Objective: Aggression toward health care workers is a growing global concern, contributing to psychological distress and posttraumatic stress symptoms. Trauma-related coping self-efficacy (CSE) is critical in mitigating such effects and promoting psychological resilience after traumatic events. However, Italian health care settings lack a validated tool to measure CSE. This study aimed to preliminarily validate an Italian version of the Trauma-Related CSE Scale, adapted to measure health care workers’ responses to verbal and physical aggression from patients or clients. Method: The study involved 1,999 health care professionals who faced verbal aggression (92.6%) or physical aggression (7.4%) from patients or clients. The sample was primarily consisting of female nurses, with an average age of 46.95 years and a mean job tenure of 20 years. Participants were randomly divided into two groups: one for exploratory factor analysis (EFA; n = 996) and another for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA; n = 1,003). The scale’s factorial structure was evaluated through EFA and CFA, with additional analyses for reliability, measurement invariance, and both nomological and concurrent validity. Results: EFA supported a unidimensional six-item structure, which was confirmed by CFA and demonstrated strong reliability. Full residual invariance was observed across health care professionals aged below and above 50 years. Higher CSE was negatively correlated with burnout and posttraumatic stress symptoms while positively associated with job satisfaction and emotional regulatory self-efficacy. Nurses reported lower CSE than doctors. Conclusions: This study offers a context-specific tool for assessing CSE in hospital health care settings, which can aid organizations in implementing practices to strengthen workers’ resilience. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)