Work related sexual harassment and risk of suicide and suicide attempts: prospective cohort study

Abstract

Objective To analyse the relation between exposure to workplace sexual harassment and suicide, as well as suicide attempts. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Sweden. Participants 86 451 men and women of working age in paid work across different occupations responded to a self-report questionnaire including exposure to work related sexual harassment between 1995 and 2013. The analytical sample included 85 205 people with valid data on sexual harassment, follow-up time, and age. Main outcome measures Suicide and suicide attempts ascertained from administrative registers (mean follow-up time 13 years). Results Among the people included in the respective analyses of suicide and suicide attempts, 125 (0.1%) died from suicide and 816 (1%) had a suicide attempt during follow-up (rate 0.1 and 0.8 cases per 1000 person years). Overall, 11 of 4095 participants exposed to workplace sexual harassment and 114 of 81 110 unexposed participants committed suicide, and 61/4043 exposed and 755/80 513 unexposed participants had a record of suicide attempt. In Cox regression analyses adjusted for a range of sociodemographic characteristics, workplace sexual harassment was associated with an excess risk of both suicide (hazard ratio 2.82, 95% confidence interval 1.49 to 5.34) and suicide attempts (1.59, 1.21 to 2.08), and risk estimates remained significantly increased after adjustment for baseline health and certain work characteristics. No obvious differences between men and women were found. Conclusions The results support the hypothesis that workplace sexual harassment is prospectively associated with suicidal behaviour. This suggests that suicide prevention considering the social work environment may be useful. More research is, however, needed to determine causality, risk factors for workplace sexual harassment, and explanations for an association between work related sexual harassment and suicidal behaviour.

Sexual harassment and suicide

“…In the linked prospective study, Magnusson Hanson and colleagues convincingly show excess rates of suicide attempts and deaths among people reporting workplace sexual harassment (doi:10.1136/bmj.m2984). 1 These results persist after extensive adjustment, including sex, country of birth, family type, education, income, baseline mental health, and working conditions. Importantly, neither the incidence nor the association with suicidality are limited to women.…”

Health and Well-Being Consequences for Gender Violence Survivors from Isolating Gender Violence

“…Regarding mental health, sexual harassment is linked to suffering depressive symptoms [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23], anxiety [20] as well as feelings of shame, humiliation and self-blame [17,18]. Furthermore, an association between sexual harassment in the workplace and suicide and suicide attempts has been found [24]. Moreover, other research carried out in different workplace settings has shown that women who suffer sexual harassment develop psychological distress, which refers to a psychological condition that is characterized by negative thoughts and feelings related to anxiety, fear or depression [25] and need later psychotherapeutic or pharmacologic treatment [23].…”

Human resource practitioners as sexual harassment commissioners: Sisyphus amid gender inequalities

“…There has been much research on WSH. Studies have inquired into WSH's antecedents (Ollo-López and Nuñez, 2018; Pina and Gannon, 2012) and consequences (Adams-Clark et al , 2020; Hanson et al , 2020; McLaughlin et al , 2017; Willness et al , 2007), as well as its legal aspects, including policy, enforcement and sanctions (Gomes et al , 2004; McDonald et al , 2010). In addition, a voluminous literature has explored the experiences and perceptions of WSH from the viewpoint of the victims (Bowling and Beehr, 2006), employees (Brunner and Denver, 2014) and observers (Diekmann et al , 2013; Espinoza and Cunningham, 2010; Tseng, 2014).…”