Exposure to bullying behaviors at work and subsequent symptoms of anxiety: the moderating role of individual coping style

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Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate if bullied nurses have a more negative coping style when facing stressful events than do non-bullied nurses, and to determine if coping style moderates the well-established bullying-anxiety relationship. Cohort data were gathered in 2008/2009 and 2010 with a time lag of approximately one year for all respondents. At T1 2059 Norwegian nurses participated, whereof 1582 also responded at T2. A t-test and a hierarchical regression analysis were conducted to obtain results for the hypothesized relationships. The results show that bullied nurses use an active goal-oriented coping style less often compared to non-bullied nurses. Furthermore, active goal-oriented coping seems beneficial only when exposure to bullying behaviors is very low. This effect diminishes however as the bullying behavior intensifies. Hence, victims of bullying seem to cope more negatively with stressful events than do others. On the other hand, high exposure to bullying behaviors has negative consequences for the subsequent level of anxiety for those affected, regardless of their general coping style.

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If it changes it must be a process: study of emotion and coping during three stages of a college examination.

S Folkman, R Lazarus (1984)

This natural experiment provides substantial evidence for the following major themes, which are based on a cognitively oriented, process-centered theory of stress and coping: First, a stressful encounter should be viewed as a dynamic, unfolding process, not as a static, unitary event. Emotion and coping (including the use of social support) were assessed at three stages of a midterm examination: the anticipation stage before the exam, the waiting stage after the exam and before grades were announced, and after grades were posted. For the group as a whole there were significant changes in emotions and coping (including the use of social support) across the three stages. Second, people experience seemingly contradictory emotions and states of mind during every stage of an encounter. In this study, for example, subjects experienced both threat emotions and challege emotions. The complexity of emotions and their cognitive appraisals reflects ambiguity regarding the multifaceted nature of the exam and its meanings, especially during the anticipation stage. Third, coping is a complex process. On the average, subjects used combinations of most of the available forms of problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping at every stage of the exam. Different forms of coping were salient during the anticipation and waiting stages. Problem-focused coping and emphasizing the positive were more prominent during the former, and distancing more prominent during the latter. Finally, despite normatively shared emotional reactions at each stage, substantial individual differences remained. Using selected appraisal and coping variables, and taking grade point averages (GPA) into account, approximately 48% of the variances in threat and challenge emotions at the anticipation stage was explained. Controlling for variance due to the grade received, appraisal, and coping variables accounted for 28% of the variance in positive and negative emotions at the outcome stage. Including grade, 57% of the variance in positive emotions at outcome and 61% of the negative emotions at outcome were explained.

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The cognitive activation theory of stress.

Holger Ursin, Hege R. Eriksen (2004)

This paper presents a cognitive activation theory of stress (CATS), with a formal system of systematic definitions. The term "stress" is used for four aspects of "stress", stress stimuli, stress experience, the non-specific, general stress response, and experience of the stress response. These four meanings may be measured separately. The stress response is a general alarm in a homeostatic system, producing general and unspecific neurophysiological activation from one level of arousal to more arousal. The stress response occurs whenever there is something missing, for instance a homeostatic imbalance, or a threat to homeostasis and life of the organism. Formally, the alarm occurs when there is a discrepancy between what should be and what is-between the value a variable should have (set value (SV)), and the real value (actual value (AV)) of the same variable. The stress response, therefore, is an essential and necessary physiological response. The unpleasantness of the alarm is no health threat. However, if sustained, the response may lead to illness and disease through established pathophysiological processes ("allostatic load"). The alarm elicits specific behaviors to cope with the situation. The level of alarm depends on expectancy of the outcome of stimuli and the specific responses available for coping. Psychological defense is defined as a distortion of stimulus expectancies. Response outcome expectancies are defined as positive, negative, or none, to the available responses. This offers formal definitions of coping, hopelessness, and helplessness that are easy to operationalize in man and in animals. It is an essential element of CATS that only when coping is defined as positive outcome expectancy does the concept predict relations to health and disease.

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An analysis of coping in a middle-aged community sample.

R Lazarus, S Folkman (1980)

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Ind Health

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Ind Health

Journal ID (publisher-id): INDHEALTH

Title: Industrial Health

Publisher: National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Japan

ISSN (Print): 0019-8366

ISSN (Electronic): 1880-8026

Publication date (Electronic): 01 May 2016

Publication date (Print): September 2016

Volume: 54

Issue: 5

Pages: 421-432

Affiliations

[1 ]Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Norway

[2 ]Norwegian Competence Center for Sleep Disorders, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway

[3 ]Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, University of Bergen, Norway

[4 ]Department of Occupational Medicine, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway

Author notes

[*]*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Iselin.Reknes@ 123456uib.no

Article

Publisher ID: 2015-0196

DOI: 10.2486/indhealth.2015-0196

PMC ID: 5054283

PubMed ID: 27151548

SO-VID: 6de52453-69c0-4468-911e-c6c81fa3316d

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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd) License.

Exposure to bullying behaviors at work and subsequent symptoms of anxiety: the moderating role of individual coping style

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Most cited references 23

If it changes it must be a process: study of emotion and coping during three stages of a college examination.

The cognitive activation theory of stress.

An analysis of coping in a middle-aged community sample.

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