What is it about?
Post-traumatic stress symptoms have previously been observed among occupationally active individuals who experience workplace bullying. Based on vulnerability theories, the individual vulnerability in more disadvantaged social groups may be increased leading to more adverse health effects when exposed to stressors. This article investigated whether individuals with lower educational level reported more PTSD symptoms when experiencing workplace bullying.
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Why is it important?
Our findings show that workplace bullying was significantly associated with the reporting of PTSD symptoms. However, individuals with lower educational level did not report more PTSD symptoms than other educational groups. Thus, in this population, workplace bullying seemed to be harmful in terms of PTSD symptoms in all social groups. 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.
Perspectives
Understanding psychological mechanisms, such as whether workplace bullying has greater health effects on lower socioeconomic groups, has great public health relevance in terms of identifying vulnerable individuals that could be more prone to report poor mental health and targeting health prevention initiatives to specific groups in society. Thus, investigating whether there is a social gradient in PTSD symptoms among those exposed to workplace bullying adds to the knowledge on social determinants in health and the prevention of health outcomes.
Sabrina Islamoska
University of Copenhagen
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Does the Association between Workplace Bullying and Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms differ across Educational Groups?, Journal of European Psychology Students, January 2018, Ubiquity Press, Ltd.,
DOI: 10.5334/jeps.432.
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