Journal Article

The Prevalence and Health Impacts of Frequent Work Discrimination and Harassment among Women Firefighters in the US Fire Service

Haddock, Christopher K., Jahnke, Sara, Kaipust, Christopher M., Hollerbach, Brittany S., Jitnarin, Nattinee, Poston, Walker S. C.

2019

Overview

Intro. Both discrimination and harassment directly impact mental and physical health. Further, workplace discrimination degrades workplace culture and negatively impacts health behaviors, job-related outcomes, and family dynamics. Women represent a small proportion of the fire service and are often the targets of discrimination/harassment, yet little research documents the impact of such experiences. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between chronic work discrimination and/or harassment and women firefighters’ (FFs) physical and mental health, substance abuse, and job efficacy, stress, and satisfaction. Methods. Snowball sampling was used to solicit participation from women career FFs. Participants completed an online survey regarding physical and mental health, health behavior, job efficacy/stress/satisfaction, and family well-being. Logistic regression examined the impact of work discrimination-harassment severity on dichotomous variables. Results. 1,773 had complete data on their experiences with work-related discrimination and harassment. Women reported experiencing verbal (37.5%) and written (12.9%) harassment, hazing (16.9%), sexual advances (37.4%), and assaults (5.1%) in the fire service. FFs in the highest tertile of work discrimination-harassment severity reported over 40% more poor health days in the last 30 days (OR=1.42; 95%CI=1.33-1.51; p<0.001). Women who experienced moderate and severe discrimination/harassment had negative mental health outcomes including higher prevalence of depressive symptoms, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms. Those who experienced high rates of discrimination and/or harassment also were more likely to report issues with alcohol consumption. Conclusion. The impact of discrimination and harassment, related negative physical and mental outcomes, low levels of job satisfaction, and negative impact of these experiences on family/home stress likely take a significant toll on women in the fire service. Findings confirm and extend previous work suggesting there is a need to improve the mental and physical health of women FFs. Future work should examine the prospective relationship between discrimination/harassment and poor health outcomes and potential policies/practices to reduce these negative behaviors.

• Publisher: Hindawi Publishing Corporation,Hindawi,John Wiley & Sons, Inc
• Subject: Adult / African Americans / Alcoholic beverages / Anxiety / Bullying / Careers / Corporate culture / Crime Victims - statistics & numerical data / Depression - psychology / Discrimination / Discrimination, Psychological - physiology / Domestic relations / Drug abuse / Drug use / Employment discrimination / Exercise / Female / Fire fighters / Fire-departments / Firefighters / Firefighters - statistics & numerical data / Fires / Gender / Harassment (Law) / Health aspects / Health behavior / Health surveys / Humans / Job Satisfaction / Job stress / Mental depression / Mental disorders / Mental health / Mental Health - statistics & numerical data / Occupational health / Occupational Stress - psychology / Physical fitness / Post traumatic stress disorder / Prevalence / Preventive medicine / Quality of life / Sampling methods / Sex discrimination against women / Sexual harassment / Sexual Harassment - statistics & numerical data / Signs and symptoms / Stress / Substance abuse / Surveys and Questionnaires / Well being / Women / Womens health / Working conditions / Workplace - statistics & numerical data / Workplace diversity