Independent and Combined Effects of Workplace Harassment among Child Welfare Workers

Abstract

ABSTRACT Workplace harassment, or perceived mistreatment directed toward a worker, is dangerous to worker health and job attitudes. Child welfare workers are particularly susceptible to workplace harassment due to high-stress job environments. Using a work stress process framework, this study examined how perceptions of status-based bias (i.e., discriminatory behaviors based on a status characteristic), supervisor bullying (i.e., bullying behaviors from a supervisor), and client violence (i.e., violence perpetrated by clients) related to personal and work-related outcomes among child welfare workers. Separate models considered independent and collective effects. This study used data from the Florida Study of Professionals for Safe Families (FSPSF), a statewide sample of child welfare workers (n = 969). Regression models tested the associations among the types of workplace harassment and workers’ outcomes. Descriptive findings indicated that, largely regardless of status characteristics, status-based bias, supervisor bullying, and client violence are pervasive. Linear regression results showed that harassment related to negative, independent, collective, and largely additive effects to mental health and job attitudes. The widespread nature of workplace harassment among child welfare workers coupled with the evidence that each additional form of harassment is associated with worse outcomes suggests the importance of proactive and responsive measures at the agency level.