Workplace Bullying: Impact on Depression and Anxiety and the Link Between Victim and Perpetrator Status

Abstract

This study on workplace bullying investigated the role power plays in becoming a victim and/or a bully, how these identities are related, and how being a bully and/or a victim affects mental health in terms of anxiety and depression. Participants (n = 377) were administered a survey with questions concerning objective power, perceived power, bully status, victim status, social desirability, anxiety, and depression. Bully status and victim status overlapped at a rate greater than chance, which suggests bully-victims are fairly common. Perceived power was a much better predictor than objective power in determining bully status and victim status. Depression and anxiety were highest for bully-victims, then victims, then bullies, then neither bullies nor victims. These findings challenge common assumptions about workplace bullying and help close the gap in the literature between understanding bullying in school-age children and in the workplace.