[Mobbing, organizational dysfunction and bio-psycho-social effects: an integrated assessment. Preliminary data for the validation of the Questionnaire in the Neapoletan dialect on Distress at Work(Qn-DL)]. / Mobbing, costrittività organizzative ed effetti bio-psico-sociali: una valutazione integrata. Dati preliminari di validazione del Questionario-napoletano sul Disagio Lavorativo (Qn-DL).

The aim of this study is to produce preliminary data about the validation of the "Naples-Questionnaire of Distress at Work" (nQ.DW). This inventory is a new assessment tool in order to evaluate the distress perceived in the working environment by means of the differentiation of the conditions linked to the mobbing from which related to organizational disfunction. The nQ-DW also measures the bio-psycho-social global effects of these two phenomena. The questionnaire has been administered to workers suffering of a psychopathological disturbance related to work distress and to a control group matched for the sociodemographic and working variables. The statistical analysis demonstrated a significant validity and reliability. The degree of internal coherence was satisfactory. The ROC curves allow the determination of a threshold value which allows to separate the workers subjected to mobbing and/or organizational stress from control-workers with an optimal reliability degree. The values of the area under the ROC curves show that the inventory has a high discriminating capacity. Future studies, based on a greater sample size, will be oriented to the analysis of the questionnaire by means of multivariate techniques like the factorial analysis.

Association between bullying at work and mental disorders: gender differences in the Italian people.

BACKGROUND: In the last few years the international literature has shown an increasing attention for the work as life-event stressor, for its organizational characteristics as well as for job insecurity and interpersonal conflicts. METHODS: We have studied 707 subjects who approached the Work Psychopathology Medical Centre of Naples to evaluate the DSM IV diagnoses and the degree of bullying at the workplace according to Leymann's definition. Two groups, with high and with low severity of bullying, were compared, mainly in relation to gender differences. RESULTS: The more frequent diagnoses were anxiety disorders (8.7% of the total), mood disorders (31.5%) and adjustment disorders (58.3%). The patients with higher degree of bullying were 55.7% among the subjects with anxiety disorders, 51.4% among the patients with adjustment disorders and 81.25% in the group with mood disorders. The odds of patients with severe bullying was 1.602 times higher for males than for females. Independently by the gender, the odds of patients being in the group with severe bullying were more than three times higher for subjects with mood disorders than for patients suffering from anxiety and adjustment disorders. DISCUSSION: In the male gender, the psychiatric disturbances are more correlated to bullying at the workplace and this datum is especially linked to the gender differences found in the relationship between severity of bullying and adjustment disorders. Among female employees the psychopathological dimensions could be linked with a more multifactorial genesis in relation to their psychosocial role in the cultural context we examined (Southern Italy).