A domestic study has confirmed that workplace harassment has a greater negative impact on the mental health of men than women.

Kangbuk Samsung Hospital said Wednesday that a research team of Professor Cho Sung-joon of the hospital's Department of Psychiatry and Professosr Jung Seul-ah and Kim Min-kyung of CHA Ilsan Medical Center's Department of Psychiatry has found it after analyzing the correlation between workplace bullying and depression by gender.

The researchers surveyed 12,344 Korean workers aged 19 to 65 who used the service to promote workers' mental health at the Kangbuk Samsung Hospital’s Corporate Mental Health Research Center from 2020 to 2022, asking them about their depression scales and experiences with bullying.

Depression was defined as a score of 16 points or higher on the depression scale, and workplace bullying was defined as the experience of harassment, such as intentional insults, harassment, and verbal abuse, or intentional bullying, including marginalization and maltreatment, at work in the past six months.

As a result, the prevalence of depression was 3.24 times higher among female workers and 5.23 times higher among male workers who experienced workplace bullying, indicating that workplace bullying and depression had a greater impact on male workers.

"This study not only reconfirms the relationship between workplace bullying and depression but also suggests measures to manage depression by gender," Professor Cho said. "It has particular implications for professions and organizations with a strong gender bias, such as soldiers and nurses."

Education and social awareness of workplace bullying are needed for the mental health of workers, and future research should analyze the specific factors that make victims of workplace bullying more vulnerable to developing depression and evaluate the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions, Cho added.