​Workplace Bullying, Depression & ​Cortisol

The purpose of the PhD project was to investigate the connection between exposure to bullying in working life, risk of depression, and changes in the level of stress hormone cortisol in a longitudinal design.

We identified 147 new cases of depression and found an increased risk of depression and depressive symptoms among participants who reported having been subjected to bullying from time to time / often. We found no correlation between exposure to bullying and depression or depressive symptoms in the part of the analysis where we measured bullying at workplace level. Likewise, we found no correlation between prolonged bullying and changes in cortisol, or differences in cortisol in low physical activity among the bully and not bullying.

The project thus confirms previous studies and shows that self-reported bullying in working life gives an increased risk of depression. However, in our analyzes at the workplace level, we could not support the same finding. In addition, we were unable to support the correlation between exposure to bullying and changes in cortisol.