Comparison between mobbing at work and conditions of job strain and effort-reward imbalance in relation to stress-related disorders: a study in the public administration

"Comparison between mobbing at work and conditions of job strain and effort-reward imbalance in relation to stress-related disorders: a study in the public administration". Background: A limitation of previous research on mobbing at work was that the individual consequences of the phenomenon were often assessed on 'clinical' samples of victims. Studies in organizations are less numerous and those available rarely evaluated the potential effect of mobbing over and above that of other psychosocial factors which provided robust evidence of adverse health effects. Objectives: The relationship between exposure to mobbing and stress-related psychophysical conditions was investigated taking in consideration the possible concomitant exposure to job strain and effort-reward imbalance. Methods: Cross-sectional study on public administration administrative employees (No.=538, 48% women). The psychosocial factors considered were assessed by means of well known and validated scales. The four health outcomes considered were psychological caseness (as operationalized by means of the General Health Questionnaire - 12-item version), depression, gastritis and colitis/irritable colon syndrome as indicated by having reported a medical diagnosis of such conditions. Covariates: gender, age, body mass index, smoking habits and experience of a traumatic event in the last year. Analysis consisted of a series of logistic regressions. Results: Exposure to mobbing was significantly associated with all the outcomes considered over and above the covariates. The inclusion in the models of job strain and effort-reward imbalance did not substantially alter the results. Conclusions: The relationship between mobbing at work and health outcomes is not confounded by concomitant exposure to job strain and effort-reward imbalance. These results offer further confirmation of the uniqueness of mobbing as a psychosocial risk factor.