Narratives of Working Mothers Experiencing Workplace Bullying: Trauma Transferred to Young Children

Abstract

Objective To examine how workplace bullying experienced by South Korean working mothers is connected to the displacement of the mothers' anger and anxiety onto their young children. Background Workplace bullying has become a nationally and internationally recognized occupational health and safety issue in recent years. Despite an increasing number of working mothers, there is no research on the relationship between workplace bullying and working mothers' perception and experience in relation to their children and parenting. Method Both purposive and snowball sampling were used to recruit study participants, who were 11 South Korean working mothers with children 6 years of age or younger. Data collected from in‐depth interviews were analyzed thematically. Results First, the working mothers' experiences of workplace bullying involved relational bullying and its costs, such as depression and psychological burnout. Second, the working mothers' views of their children and parenting were intensely negative; the mothers considered parenting to be “just more work.” Their children were at greater risk of being socially and emotionally deprived due to problematic parenting. Conclusion Workplace bullying adversely affects victim mothers' children via the spillover effect between work and home. Implications Working mothers who raise young children should be protected from workplace bullying. Training programs for employers and managers and context‐specific interventions are essential to ensure a healthy organizational culture.

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