Does the Association between Workplace Bullying and Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms differ across Educational Groups?

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the level of reported post-traumatic stress (PTSD) symptoms among targets of workplace bullying differ depending on their educational level. Exposure to workplace bullying was assessed by the behavioural experience method and the self-labelling method among 563 Danish employees. PTSD symptoms were assessed by the Impact of Event Scale – Revised. Educational level was measured as years of education. The results showed that workplace bullying was significantly associated with the reporting of PTSD symptoms. However, PTSD symptoms were not reported differently among those with experience of work-place bullying. Implementing bullying policies is an important step in promoting a healthy psychosocial working environment. All targets of workplace bullying would benefit from interventions aiming to reduce progression of PTSD symptoms

The association between workplace bullying and depressive symptoms:the role of the perpetrator

Abstract Background The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the depressive symptoms of the bullied respondents differed according to who the perpetrator was. Methods We used cross-sectional questionnaire data from two representative cohorts: the Danish Working Environment Cohort Study (DWECS 2010) and the Work and Health Study (WH 2012). After excluding respondents not having a leader, or being self-employed, assisting spouses, and those reporting multiple perpetrators in WH 2012, the statistical analysis included 2478 bullied individuals. We compared respondents reporting being bullied by their (1) leader, (2) subordinates, (3) clients / customers / patients / students, or (4) colleagues, respectively. The occurrence of depressive symptoms was measured by the Major Depression Inventory (MDI). Results The most frequent perpetrator of bullying was clients (41.5 %) in DWECS 2010 and colleagues (60.3 %) in WH 2012. In DWECS 2010, the MDI score of those being bullied by clients were significantly lower than the MDI scores of the other groups. In WH 2012, respondents who reported bullying from leaders had a significantly higher mean MDI score than participants being bullied by colleagues. Also in WH 2012, our results indicated that those who were bullied by leaders had a higher MDI score than those bullied by clients, although this difference was not statistically significant at conventional levels. Conclusion Our findings indicated a similar pattern in the two cohorts, with a tendency of more severe depressive symptoms among employees who are exposed to bullying by their leaders, and the least severe symptoms among those who are bullied by clients

When do negative acts reflect experienced workplace bullying? Identifying optimal cut-off points on the Short-Negative Act Questionnaire

When do negative acts reflect experienced workplace bullying? Identifying optimal cut-off points on the Short-Negative Act QuestionnaireP. M. Conway 1,*, A. Høgh 1, E. G. Mikkelsen 2, K. Nabe-Nielsen 3, M. B. Grynderup 3, R. Rugulies 4, P. Roger 5 6, Å. M. Hansen 3 41Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 2Gemzøe Consult, Aarhus, 3Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 4National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen, Denmark, 5Department of Psychology, 6Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Lund University, Lund, Swede