Impacts de la violence au travail selon l’identité de genre des victimes : étude exploratoire

Abstract

IntroductionThe consequences of workplace violence are various and have often been described in the literature. In this research, these differences are analyzed according to the concept of gender identity. This concept distinguishes four types of identity: femininity, masculinity, androgyny and undifferentiated. ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to highlight the link between workers’ gender identity and the intensity of the workplace violence's traumatic impact. Specific features related to each of these gender identities lead us to pose the following hypotheses. Subjects (male versus female) with a female gender identity are less vulnerable than others to the effects of an assault (hypothesis 1) (hypothesis 1). A similar result is expected for subjects with an androgynous gender identity (hypothesis 2). Conversely, we posit that subjects with masculine and undifferentiated gender identities will be particularly affected psychologically by the effects of violence and their level of posttraumatic stress will be higher than in subjects with a female or androgynous gender identity (hypothesis 3). MethodologyThe Bem Sex Role Inventory (Bem, 1974) was used to assess subjects’ gender identity and the IES-R (Impact of Events Scale–Revised), a revised version of Horowitz’ scale, was used to assess the impact of the psychological trauma. Our study concerns a sample of 367 workers: 230 were victims of assaults; 137 never experienced any assault. ResultsResults show that workers who have experienced an assault show a significantly higher score on the IES-R than workers who have never experienced workplace violence. This difference can be seen on every dimension of the IES-R, i.e., the intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal subscales. Moreover, analysis show that subjects with undifferentiated and masculine gender identities obtained higher scores, compared to subjects with androgynous and feminine gender identities. ConclusionTaking gender identity into account on the field of workplace violence is, in the end, an interesting dimension to take into consideration to understand more precisely psychotraumatic impacts on assaulted employees, and then their care. If this reveals a new measurable setting to understand workplace violence's effects, it is needed to be cautious in order to avoid a potential generalization, which require to duplicate this study in different professional environment. While the results of this study highlight a new measurable factor for the assessment and understanding of the effects of workplace violence, this study should be replicated in various professional environments before its conclusions could be generalised. With this caveat, this study offers a different perspective of understanding and suggestions for psychological treatment. Finally, it would be interesting to observe the short- and long-term effects of psychological treatment that is built on the consideration of gender identity.