Prevalence of sexual harassment toward psychiatric nurses and its association with quality of life in China

Liang Nan Zeng, Ka In Lok, Feng Rong An, Ling Zhang, Di Wang, Gabor S. Ungvari, Daniel T. Bressington, Teris Cheung, Ligang Chen, Yu Tao Xiang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to examine the prevalence of sexual harassment (SH) toward Chinese psychiatric nurses and its association with quality of life (QOL). Methods: A total of 2124 psychiatric nurses were consecutively recruited from 10 psychiatric hospitals distributed across 10 provinces of China; of them, 1,449 were included for analyses. Participants' socio-demographic characteristics, experiences of workplace SH in the past year, and QOL were recorded. Results: Overall, 21.5% (n = 311) of participants reported SH, with 8.4% (n = 121) reporting once, 7.1% (n = 103) reporting twice and 6.0% (n = 87) reporting three times or more. Psychiatric nurses who experienced SH had lower QOL in physical, psychological, social, and environmental domains. Multiple logistic regression analysis found that nurses with shorter clinical experience were more likely to experience SH. Conclusions: Workplace SH toward psychiatric nurses is common in mental health treatment settings in China. Considering its deleterious impact on nurses' well-being and care quality, effective staff training on the management of SH and a zero tolerance policy against SH should be developed for this population.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)394-397
Number of pages4
JournalArchives of Psychiatric Nursing
Volume34
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • China
  • Psychiatric nurses
  • Sexual harassment

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