A Study on the Effect of Workplace Bullying on Depression of Korean Young Workers

Background and Purpose: Workplace bullying means all actions that cause physical and mental pain or deterioration of work environment to workers by using superiority of a status or relationships at the workplace. In South Korea, workplace bullying is very frequent that average 73.3% of workers are experienced workplace bullying, even the number of workplace bullying reports through the government's human rights committee increases by 2-3,000 every year. Especially, the frequency of korean young workers' workplace bullying is higher than other age groups, as young workers' tendency that 'Getting a job with a lack of work experience' is implicitly abused. However, despite these problems, there was very few studies in korean and foreign research fields that investigated the status of korean young workers' workplace bullying and its impact.

Therefore, this research aimed to explore the effects of workplace bullying on the korean young workers' depression, focusing on "Mental health problems" among the various adverse effects of workplace bullying, and analysis the factors of workplace bullying that significantly cause their depression.

Methods: Data and samples: This research used data of the "2021 Youth Social·Economy Survey" conducted by the Korea National Youth Policy Institute. This survey collected data through 1:1 face-to-face interviews with 2,041 korean young people aged 18 to 34. In this research, 1,146 young workers who responded they had experienced workplace bullying were selected as a research sample.

Measures: The 'Workplace bullying' was measured by questions asked the experience status of eight workplace bullying factors(①Excessive work assignment, ②Abusive language·physical violence, ③Pressure of department transfer·resignation, ④Force to participate drinking·smoking·company dinner, ⑤Discrimination in opportunity·treatment, ⑥Intentional restriction of rights requirements and disregard of demands, ⑦Sexual harassment·sexual molestation, ⑧Organizational exclusion from non-work activities). The 'Depression' was measured based on the CES-D scale that composed of a 4-point Likert scale for 11 questions about depressive symptoms, and the higher total responses score mean the higher depression. And performed statistical analysis including linear multiple regression analysis, after putting seven control variables composed of demographic·sociological factors.

Findings: First, more young workers’ experienced workplace bullying made higher depression significantly(R²=.185, β=.308, p<.001). Also, through linear multiple regression analysis on the effects of each workplace bullying factors on depression, korean young workers were found to increase the level of depression when they experienced workplace bullying type of 'Excessive work assignment(β=.089, p<.05)', 'Force to participate drinking·smoking·company dinner(β=.135, p<.001)', 'Discrimination in opportunity·treatment(β=.108, p<.001)', 'Intentional restriction of rights requirements and disregard of demands(β=.067, p<.05)'. So, it confirmed that workplace bullying form of 'Force to participate drinking·smoking·company dinner' had the greatest effect on the depression of korean young workers.

Conclusions and Implications: This research argued that practical·policy efforts are needed to prevent and solve korean young workers' workplace bullying, and simultaneously, it is necessary to develop strategy to respond young workers' depression risks caused by workplace bullying. This research have academic meaning that it examined the workplace bullying problem of korean young workers with linking mental health problems, which has not been largely studied in the korean and foreign social science research field.