Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious social problem, with pernicious consequences for families and children. Likewise, organizations may be disadvantaged due to lost productivity and medical expenses. Building on this literature, we argue that the coworkers of IPV victims may also experience elevated anxiety and depression, at least under certain conditions. We explored these ideas in a four-month, experience sampling methodology (ESM) study. The study was designed to examine anxiety and depression at work, as well as how the former impacts employee work goal progress. Tragically, eight weeks into data collection, an estranged husband murdered his former spouse and subsequently committed suicide. Consequently, we were able to assess potential changes on all three criterion variables, both among those with higher psychosocial proximity to the IPV (worked in the same job and in the same building) and lower psychosocial proximity (worked in different jobs and/or in different buildings). Even further, we also examine individual characteristics to determine who is most affected by a vicarious IPV. As expected, employees showed heightened levels of anxiety and depression after IPV against a coworker. Anxiety, in turn, was associated with reduced work goal progress. However, these effects only held among coworkers with high psychosocial proximity to the incident and those prone to anxiety.