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Workplace Bullying and Mental Health

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Pathways of Job-related Negative Behaviour

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Workplace Bullying, Emotional Abuse and Harassment ((HWBEAH,volume 2))

Abstract

The last two decades have seen a steep increase in the number of studies examining the relationship between workplace bullying and mental health. This comes as no surprise, considering that workplace bullying represents a powerful stressor and a severely traumatic experience that may profoundly shatter people’s assumptions about themselves and the surrounding world. The goal of this chapter is to make an overview of the extant international literature on the relationship between workplace bullying and mental health. After presenting the available meta-analytic findings, the chapter will summarize the most methodologically robust international research investigating the impact of workplace bullying on a diverse array of mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, psychological distress, post-traumatic stress disorder and burnout. Studies focusing on the mental health effects of witnessing bullying and examining reverse causation (i.e. the impact of mental health on the exposure to workplace bullying) will be also reviewed. The chapter will then move on to the available research on individual and work-related moderators of the relationship between workplace bullying and mental health. In the concluding section, the main gaps in current knowledge will be summarized, followed by a discussion of the future research directions needed to enhance our understanding of the link between workplace bullying and mental health.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Paul Maurice Conway & Annie Hogh

  2. Department of Political and Social Science, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Cristian Balducci

  3. Instructor at the Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Denis Kiyak Ebbesen

Authors
  1. Paul Maurice Conway
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  2. Annie Hogh
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  3. Cristian Balducci
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  4. Denis Kiyak Ebbesen
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Paul Maurice Conway or Annie Hogh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Organizational Behaviour (OB), Indian Institute of Management Organizational Behaviour (OB), Ahmedabad, India

    Premilla D'Cruz

  2. Organizational Behaviour, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad Organizational Behaviour, Ahmedabad, India

    Ernesto Noronha

  3. Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven Faculty of Economics and Business, Brussels, Brussels Hoofdst.ge., Belgium

    Elfi Baillien

  4. School of Management, North Shore MSC, Massey University School of Management, North Shore MSC, Auckland, New Zealand

    Bevan Catley

  5. The University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

    Karen Harlos

  6. Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen Department of Psychology, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Annie Hogh

  7. Gemzoe Consult, Aarhus, Denmark

    Eva Gemzoe Mikkelsen

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Conway, P.M., Hogh, A., Balducci, C., Ebbesen, D.K. (2018). Workplace Bullying and Mental Health. In: D'Cruz, P., et al. Pathways of Job-related Negative Behaviour. Handbooks of Workplace Bullying, Emotional Abuse and Harassment, vol 2. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6173-8_5-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6173-8_5-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-6173-8

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