Relationships between exposure to bullying at work and psychological and psychosomatic health complaints: The role of state negative affectivity and generalized self–efficacy

TLDR

The study examined how exposure to workplace bullying relates to psychological and psychosomatic health complaints, and whether state negative affectivity mediates and generalized self‑efficacy moderates these relationships. A cross‑sectional survey of 224 white‑ and blue‑collar employees at a Danish manufacturing firm provided the data. Bullying was linked to higher psychological and psychosomatic complaints and increased state negative affectivity, accounting for 27 % and 10 % of variance respectively, with state negative affectivity partially mediating the effects and generalized self‑efficacy moderating the link to psychological complaints.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between exposure to behaviors identified as workplace bullying and self-report measurements of psychological and psychosomatic health complaints. Secondly, we investigated whether these relationships were mediated by the state negative affectivity of the victim. Thirdly, we investigated the extent to which generalized self-efficacy moderated the relationships between exposure to bullying behaviors and health complaints. Two hundred and twenty-four white- and blue-collar employees from a Danish manufacturing company participated in the study. Exposure to bullying behaviors was associated with an increase in psychological health complaints, increased levels of psychosomatic complaints and an elevated level of state negative affectivity. Whereas bullying by itself accounted for 27% of the variance in psychological health complaints and 10% of the variance in psychosomatic complaints, the results pointed to state negative affectivity as a partial mediator of the relationships between exposure to bullying behaviors and both measures of self-reported health. Though not directly related to reported exposure to bullying behaviors, generalized self-efficacy seemed to act as a moderator of the relationship between exposure to bullying behaviors and psychological health complaints.