Sexual Harassment by Patients, Clients, and Residents: Investigating Its Prevalence, Frequency and Associations with Impaired Well-Being among Social and Healthcare Workers in Germany.

Sabine Gregersen,Albert Nienhaus,Anja Schablon,Mareike Adler,Sylvie Vincent-Höper,Claudia Vaupel

doi:10.3390/ijerph18105198

Abstract

Social and healthcare workers are at high risk of experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace. Although sexual harassment is detrimental to people’s well-being, only a few studies have systematically investigated social and healthcare workers’ experiences of different forms of sexually harassing behaviors by patients, clients, and residents in Germany. This study aimed to address this gap by determining the prevalence rates and frequency of nonverbal, verbal, and physical sexual harassment by patients, clients, and residents against social and healthcare workers. In addition, we examined the associations of sexual harassment with workers’ well-being and described employees’ awareness of offers of organizational support for sexual harassment prevention and aftercare. Data were collected from n = 901 employees working in a total of 61 facilities, including inpatient and outpatient care, psychiatric facilities, hospitals, and facilities for persons with disabilities. While the prevalence, frequency, and predominant forms of sexual harassment differed across sectors, the results indicated that nonverbal, verbal and physical sexual harassment were highly prevalent in social and healthcare work, with both men and women being affected. Furthermore, we found that sexual harassment was positively related to impaired well-being (e.g., depressiveness and psychosomatic complaints). In terms of support offers for sexual harassment prevention and aftercare, we found that approximately one-third of social and healthcare workers were not aware of any offers at their facilities. In addition to highlighting the problem of sexual harassment by patients, clients, and residents in social and healthcare settings, this study provides recommendations for the development of interventions and suggests several avenues for future research.

Highlights

Compared with the prevalence of general sexual harassment (9%) toward professionals in Germany in the past three years [7] and the prevalence of general sexual harassment of social and health care workers in the past 12 months in Germany [22], the prevalence rates we found in this study of nonverbal, verbal, and physical sexual harassment by patients, clients, and residents alone in the past 12 months in the social and health care sector can be considered very high, but are in line with previous research [2,21,23]
We examined the relations between different forms of sexual harassment against social and healthcare workers by patients, clients, and residents and their impaired well-being
Building on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, we suggest that several organizational resources and personal resources may buffer the negative association between sexual harassment by patients/clients and social and healthcare workers’ well-being

Summary

Introduction

Sexual harassment in the workplace occurs every day all over the world: it is a global issue that is still prevalent and taboo [1,2,3]. While the research on sexual harassment by supervisors and colleagues is substantial, knowledge is limited about sexual harassment by clients, patients, and residents [4,5,6]. The healthcare workforce is even more at risk of experiencing sexual harassment by people outside the organization (e.g., patients and clients) [7,8]. Research in the field of sexual harassment by patients, clients or residents is fragmented and fraught with problems [9], especially due to the lack

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