Influence of mobbing (workplace bullying) on depressive symptoms: a longitudinal study among employees working with people with intellectual disabilities.
Persistent workplace bullying increases depressive symptoms among ID service staff—screen and address mobbing early.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers followed disability support staff for two years. They asked how often workers faced mobbing—mean gossip, exclusion, or verbal attacks from coworkers.
Staff who said yes every week for at least six months at both time points counted as “persistent mobbing.” The team then compared depression scores between groups.
What they found
Workers stuck in ongoing bullying reported more depressive symptoms. The longer the mobbing lasted, the worse their mood scores got.
Staff who escaped bullying or never faced it had lower depression at follow-up.
How this fits with other research
Lancioni et al. (2011) and Kozak et al. (2013) already showed burnout and depression run high in ID staff. Those surveys pointed to broad job stress; H et al. now pinpoints mobbing as one clear, lasting trigger.
At first glance, Perez et al. (2015) seems to disagree—they found positive work factors like self-efficacy buffer burnout even when aggression is high. The difference is source: M et al. looked at client aggression, while H et al. tracked peer bullying. Supportive coaching may shield you from upset clients, but it won’t stop a toxic teammate.
Barton et al. (2019) extend the story by showing mindfulness training cuts burnout. Pair their result with H et al. and you get a two-step plan: stop mobbing early, then teach coping skills to anyone already affected.
Why it matters
Bullying is not just an HR issue—it directly harms staff mental health and, by extension, client care. Add a brief mobbing screen to annual surveys. If reports show persistent bullying, act fast: separate the parties, document incidents, and bring in mediation. Early action can prevent the downward spiral this study tracks.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: The problem of mobbing has attracted a great deal of attention over the past few years. This concern has increased the study of the phenomena, which has resulted in many scientific publications. Mobbing has been characterised as an emerging risk at work. The aim of this longitudinal study was to analyse the influence of mobbing on depressive symptoms in a sample of employees working with people with intellectual disabilities (ID). METHOD: The sample consisted of 372 Spanish employees working with people with ID at 61 job centres in the Valencian Community (Spain). Seventy-nine (21.2%) participants were men, and 293 were (78.8%) women. Mobbing was evaluated by the Mobbing-UNIPSICO scale, and depressive symptoms were measured using the Zung Self Rating Depression Scale. Using analyses of variance (anova), we tested the differences in depressive symptoms according to the mobbing criteria indicated by Leymann, that is, frequency and duration at Time 1 and Time 2. RESULTS: Employees who met the mobbing criteria: frequency (at least once a week) and duration (at least 6 months) at the two study times presented significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms than employees who met mobbing criteria at Time 1, but did not meet any criteria for mobbing at Time 2, and employees who did not meet any criteria for mobbing at Time 1 or Time 2. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that permanence of mobbing from Time 1 to Time 2 increases depressive symptoms.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2015 · doi:10.1111/jir.12084