School bullying victimization and post-traumatic stress symptoms in adolescents: the mediating roles of feelings of insecurity and self-disclosure

BACKGROUND

Posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSSs) is known to be a typical problem for school bullying victims. However, the underlying mechanism between school bullying victimization and PTSSs remains unknown. This study examined the mediating roles of feelings of insecurity and self-disclosure in the relationship between school bullying victimization and PTSSs in adolescents.

METHODS

Self-report questionnaires were used to assess 5013 adolescents; 443 of them with school bullying experiences were selected to carry out this study.

RESULTS

The results found that school bullying victimization was directly related to more PTSSs, indirectly associated with more PTSSs through feelings of insecurity, and through the path from feelings of insecurity to self-disclosure. However, school bullying victimization did not exert an indirect effect on PTSSs through one step effect of self-disclosure.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings indicated that feelings of insecurity and self-disclosure mediated the relationship between school bullying victimization and PTSSs. The psychological service should reduce adolescents' feelings of insecurity and give them more chances to disclose their bullying experiences.

Subordinates’ silence: the consequence of bullying behaviour and psychological insecurity among policemen

Purpose

There has been a growing concern about employee silence (ES) within an organization. ES is associated with low creativity and innovativeness, unethical organizational practices, avoidable errors and safety-related issues. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the mediating role of psychological insecurity (PI) in the relationship between leaders’ bullying behaviour (LBB) on defensive (DES) and acquiescent employee silence (AES).

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected among police personnel working in Plateau state Nigeria. In all, a total of 350 responses were found useable for further analysis, of the 398 copies of the questionnaire administered. A structural equation modelling technique was used via SMART-PLS version 3.3.3 to test the hypothesized relationship.

Findings

The findings of this study revealed that leaders’ bullying positively and significantly influences both AES and DES, and PI was found to mediate the relationship between LBB and AES and DES.

Originality/value

LBB among the police has been under-researched, even when there is clear evidence of its existence. PI explains the mechanism through which LBB influences officers' silence.

A Qualitative Study to Develop a Privacy and Nondiscrimination Best Practice Framework for Personalized Wellness Programs

Employers in the United States (US) increasingly offer personalized wellness products as a workplace benefit. In doing so, those employers must be cognizant of not only US law but also European Union (EU) law to the extent that the EU law applies to European immigrants or guest workers in the US. To the extent that wellness programs are implemented in either public health or employment contexts within the US and/or EU, sponsors of these programs can partner with direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing companies and other digital health companies to generate, collect, and process sensitive health information that are loosely or partially regulated from a privacy and nondiscrimination standpoint. Balancing claims about the benefits of wellness programs are concerns about employee health privacy and discrimination and the current unregulated nature of consumer health data. We qualitatively explored the concerns and opinions of public and legislative stakeholders in the US to determine key themes and develop privacy and nondiscrimination best practices. Key themes emerged as promoting a culture of trust and wellness. Best practices within these themes were: (1) have transparent and prominent data standards and practices, (2) uphold employee privacy and nondiscrimination standards, (3) remove penalties associated with biometric outcomes and nondisclosure of sensitive health information, (4) reward healthy behavior regardless of biometric outcomes, and (5) make program benefits accessible regardless of personal status. Employers, DTC genetic testing companies, policymakers, and stakeholders broadly should consider these themes and best practices in the current absence of broad regulations on nondiscriminatory workplace wellness programs.

Impacts of psychological security, emotional intelligence and self-efficacy on undergraduates’ life satisfaction

The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of psychological security, emotional intelligence and self-efficacy on life satisfaction. The study was conducted among undergraduates in Nigeria where evidence of low life satisfaction has been established. Data were collected from 273 (178 males and 95 females) participants purposively selected from a southwest State in Nigeria. Results of the study showed that psychological security, β = .27, p < .05, emotional intelligence, β = .19, p < .01, and self-efficacy, β = .21, p < .01, independently predicted life satisfaction. Furthermore, the result indicated that psychological security, emotional intelligence and self-efficacy jointly predicted life satisfaction, R² = .13, F(3, 270) = 13.63, p < .01. Based on these findings, we suggest that psycho-educational interventions that would increase undergraduates’ feelings of psychological security and enhance their emotional intelligence and self-efficacy should be organized.