Sexual Intimidation at the workplace and the moderation of personality traits on physical health and depressive symptoms

Sexual Intimidation at the workplace and the moderation of personality traits on physical and mental health Mieneke Pouwelse, Len Uijtdewilligen and Inez Stevelmans Summary In this cross sectional survey, building on the Michigan Stress model, the influence of personality traits on the relationship between sexual intimidation in the workplace and physical health and / or depressive symptoms has been examined. Hypothesized was that employees who report more sexual intimidation will report more health and depressive symptoms (H1 and H2) and that personality traits moderate the relationship between sexual intimidation and physical health and / or depressive symptoms (H3). The sample consisted of employees obtained from TNT (N = 288) and staff from four municipalities (N = 175). The response rate was 27%. The data has been collected with a self-report questionnaire that mainly consisted of validated and reliable scales(VOEG, BDI, NEO-FFI, Spanningsmeter (Stress indicator) and SEQ). Hierarchical regression analyses were used to analyze the data and examine the hypotheses. The results show that 34% of the employees have suffered at least one of the forms of sexual intimidation. Findings confirmed H1, but not H2. There is also moderation of personality trait Type A behavior, but not of extraversion and neuroticism, on the relationship between sexual harassment and physical health complaints. Contrary to the prediction in hypothesis 3 in case of depressive symptoms as dependent variable there is no interaction effect. There is a strong direct relation between neuroticism and depressive symptoms. Our conclusion is that our findings support mostly our hypotheses about the relation between reported sexual intimidation at the workplace and experienced health but not about the relation with reported depressive symptoms. At least one personality trait, Type A behavior, moderates the relationship between sexual harassment and health complaints. It is recommended to conduct further research into the influence of personality traits on sexual intimidation and to develop effective interventions to predict sexual intimidation. Important is not only to concentrate upon the individuals (perpetrators, targets and bystanders) with interventions as conflict management and deescalating and coping strategies, but also upon the culture of the organizations, given the reluctance of the approached public organizations to join this survey, even if they had an official anti-intimidation policy.