Mental health of Japanese nurse victims of sexual harassment

Summary

To detect mental distress in Japanese nurses who had experienced sexual harassment victims, an original questionnaire including The General Health Questionnaire 30-item version (GHQ-30) was sent to 800 randomly selected nurses. One hundred nurses (mean age = 29.5 years; SD = 3.8; range = 22–37) responded who had experienced sexual harassment. They reported their mental health status on GHQ-30 while they were experiencing severest harassment. Using a GHQ-30 cutoff over 7, 41 (41%) were judged as having mental health problems during their severest harassment. Characteristics of sexual harassment relating to high risk for mental health problems were: content, duration over one month or over, and adversely alteration the victim's workstatus. A large study on Japanese female workers in other professions is urgently required.