The Relationship of Coworker Incivility to Job Performance and the Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy and Compassion at Work: The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Approach

Purpose

This study examined the relationship between coworker incivility and job performance via emotional exhaustion, and the moderating effect of employee self-efficacy and compassion at work on the relationship.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Drawing on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, we hypothesized an indirect relationship between coworker incivility and job performance through emotional exhaustion. Also, we predicted that the positive relationship between coworker incivility and emotional exhaustion would be weaker for employees with high self-efficacy and compassion experience at work. Surveys were gathered at two time points, 3 months apart, from 217 frontline employees of a five-star hotel in South Korea.

Findings

The results indicated that coworker incivility was negatively related to job performance and that the link was fully mediated by emotional exhaustion. Employees’ self-efficacy buffered the negative outcomes of coworker incivility, whereas experienced compassion at work did not moderate the relationship between coworker incivility and emotional exhaustion.

Implications

This study advances understanding of the negative consequences of coworker incivility and the ways to attenuate such negative effects. We suggested emotional exhaustion as a key psychological mechanism and revealed self-efficacy belief as a boundary condition related to coworker incivility.

Originality/Value

With a focus on emotional exhaustion, this study addresses the call for a better understanding of the psychological mechanism involved in workplace incivility. Also, we discovered the role that personal resources play in mitigating the negative effects of coworker incivility. Finally, we extend the literature by theorizing the boundary conditions of coworker incivility using the JD-R approach.

     

The UWBQ-I: An Adaption and Validation of a Measure of Instigated Incivility

Purpose

The purpose of this research was to adapt and validate a multidimensional instigated incivility scale. Previously, instigated incivility research has used unidimensional scales, measures designed for specific occupations (e.g., nursing), item subsets of larger scales, or scales designed for experienced incivility that assumes a change of referent will not impact the scale. This research formally validates the change of referent from experienced incivility to instigated incivility, and offers a scale designed for wide range of occupations with demonstrated advantages over a popular unidimensional scale.

Design

Study 1 proposes a second-order factor structure of the measure. Surveying a sample of 472 individuals, the study confirms the measure’s ability to predict additional variance in interpersonal deviance over a previous measure of instigated incivility, as well as provide greater detail relating to a multi-faceted personality dimension (narcissism). Study 2 uses a unique sample of 642 participants and expands the nomological network of the scale by demonstrating the correlational and predictive relationships to a network of related constructs identified by past research.

Findings

The results of Study 1 identify that the multidimensional factor structure of UWBQ-I remains intact when changed from an experienced incivility scale. Regression and dominance analyses demonstrate that the UWBQ-I provides additional variance accounted for over Blau and Andersson’s (2005) scale, capturing a larger portion of the instigated incivility construct domain. Additionally, the advantages of a multidimensional framework are identified by relating the scale sub-facets to equally specific dimensions of narcissism. Study 2 further supported the validation of the UWBQ-I by replicating a large network of relationships that have been previously identified in incivility research.

Implications

Considerably less research has been dedicated to instigated than to experienced incivility research. The present studies offer a scale that may contribute to increased research by providing more specific relationships between facets of incivility and constructs such as personality. Greater understanding of the detailed relationships may help researchers further identify antecedents and consequences and aid practitioners in developing interventions to understand and quell instigated incivility in the workplace.

Originality

Although research has used a scale such as this, the validity of the scale has never been demonstrated. This research establishes the appropriateness of the past use of such scales and also offers researchers a standard, validated measure to incorporate in a broad range of occupations for future incivility research.

     

A Comparison of a Subjective and Statistical Method for Establishing Score Comparability in an Organizational Culture Survey

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to compare the results of a subjective and a statistical method of detecting non-comparable items in 14 language-translated forms of a survey measuring organizational culture.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were obtained from a large multinational organization using a 60-item organizational culture survey. Each of 14 language-translated forms were administered to members of their respective language groups and compared to the original English (United States) form. Subjective reviews were conducted using fluent bilingual organizational members whom flagged items they did not believe were comparable. Statistical analyses using an item response theory (IRT) approach were used to detect problematic items from 14 samples with sizes ranging from 304 to 3,014. Detection patterns from these two approaches were compared.

Findings

The subjective approach identified far less items as problematic and did not agree with the statistical approach.

Implications

Our results suggest that the subjective approach as a pre-screening adaptation procedure has little added value over a careful translation/back-translation procedure.

Originality/Value

The use of language-adapted organizational surveys has become increasingly important to multinational organizations. In examining scores from such surveys the establishment of score comparability is essential. IRT analyses are often used to determine whether scores are comparable across language translations. It is also common for subjective reviews of item content to be utilized prior to statistical techniques to determine if the translated items are comparable to the original form. No research known to authors has compared modern statistical and subjective approaches to addressing these issues.     

The Shelf Life of a Safety Climate Assessment: How Long Until the Relationship with Safety–Critical Incidents Expires?

Purpose

This study investigates safety climate as both a leading (climate → incident) and a lagging (incident → climate) indicator of safety–critical incidents. This study examines the “shelf life” of a safety climate assessment and its relationships with incidents, both past and future, by examining series of incident rates in order to determine when these predictive relationships expire.

Design/Methodology/Approach

A survey was conducted at a large, multinational chemical manufacturing company, with 7,467 responses at 42 worksites in 12 countries linked to over 14,000 incident records during the 2 years prior and 2 years following the survey period. Regressions revealed that safety climate predicts incidents of varying levels of severity, but it predicts the most severe incidents over the shortest period of time. The same is true for incidents predicting safety climate, with more severe incidents having a shorter predictive window. For the most critical relationship (climate predicting more severe incidents), the ability of a safety climate assessment to predict incidents expires after 3 months.

Implications

The choice of aggregation period in constructing incident rates is essential in understanding the safety climate–incident relationship. The common yearly count of incidents would make it seem that more severe incidents cannot be predicted by safety climate and also fails to show the strongest predictive effects of less severe incidents.

Originality/Value

This research is the first to examine assumptions regarding aggregation periods when constructing safety-related incident rates. Our work guides organizations in planning their survey program, recommending more frequent measurement of safety climate.     

Interpersonal Counterproductive Work Behaviors: Distinguishing Between Person-Focused Versus Task-Focused Behaviors and Their Antecedents

Purpose

This study proposes a nuanced perspective for conceptualizing interpersonal counterproductive work behaviors (ICWBs) by distinguishing them into behaviors that hinder other workers’ task performance (task-focused ICWBs), and those that are personal in nature (person-focused ICWBs). A relational stress perspective is adopted to examine work-based dependence relational stressor and negative-affect relational stressor as predictors of each category of behavior, with trait competitiveness as a moderator.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Deductive and inductive approaches were used to generate items measuring each type of ICWBs, and the two-factor ICWB structure was validated using data from 136 respondents. Data from a different sample of 125 employees from two organizations were used to test the hypothesized model.

Findings

Work-dependence relational stressor predicted task-focused ICWBs, while negative-affect relational stressor predicted both forms of ICWBs. Trait competitiveness moderated these relationships in different ways.

Implications

This study addresses researchers’ call for fine-grained research that examines specific forms of CWBs and their underlying causes. It demonstrates that ICWBs can go beyond the traditional person-focused behaviors that target other workers’ well-being, to encompass task-focused behaviors that directly impact their performance. By revealing that different relationships at work predict such behaviors, this study informs organizations on how to manage and deter such behaviors among employees.

Originality/Value

This is the first study to distinguish ICWBs into those that are task-focused and person-focused, to provide a validated measure of these two types of behaviors, and to propose and test a model where workplace relationships differently predict such behaviors, moderated by individual’s competitiveness.     

Role Definition as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Safety Climate and Organizational Citizenship Behavior Among Hospital Nurses

Purpose

This field study investigated the moderating influence of role definitions on the association between safety climate and employees’ organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).

Design/Methodology

Data were obtained from 94 hospital nurse dyads. Focal nurses and their peers completed paper surveys. All predictor measures were self-reported; whereas the OCB ratings were provided by nurses’ peers.

Findings

Nurses’ perceptions of job requirements regarding OCB (i.e., OCB-specific role definitions) moderated the relationship between psychological safety climate and peer-rated OCB. The correlation between psychological safety climate and OCB was significant when nurses’ role definitions were narrow but non-existent when role definitions were broad.

Implications

This study links managerial commitment to safety to nurses’ pro-social behavior and identifies an important boundary condition.

Originality-Value

The link between safety climate and safety compliance has been firmly established. We investigated a less well-researched association between safety and OCB and proposed a theoretical foundation for this positive association.     

Strategies for Coping with Work Stressors and Family Stressors: Scale Development and Validation

Purpose

Both individuals and organizations benefit when workers can effectively cope with stressors in the work and family domains. This study takes an inductive approach to the development of a work stressor coping scale and a family stressor coping scale.

Design/Methodology/Approach

In phase one, a comprehensive list of coping strategies was generated through a multi-step content analysis of qualitative interviews. In phase two, the content validity of the work stressor and family stressor coping strategy scales was established using data from three samples; and in phase three, convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity evidence were obtained using data from two samples.

Findings

A multi-step content analysis of qualitative interview data was used to develop a list of 365 coping strategy statements (182 work and 183 family) representing 11 work and 14 family stressor coping strategies. Multiple samples were used to reduce the number of scale items, and establish evidence for the scales’ content, construct, and criterion-related validity. The final work stressor coping scale consisted of 36 items assessing 12 different strategies, and the final family stressor coping scale consisted of 45 items assessing 15 different strategies.

Implications

Findings from the present study suggest that individuals may use a wider variety of strategies to cope with work stressors and family stressors than previously thought, and these strategies may be differentially effective depending on the stressor domain (i.e., work or family) and outcome (e.g., work-to-family conflict vs. family-to-work conflict).

Originality/Value

The inductive nature of our study resulted in a comprehensive and domain-specific scales assessing how individuals cope with work stressors and family stressors.     

The Two-Factor Solution to Allen and Meyer’s (1990) Affective Commitment Scale: Effects of Negatively Worded Items

Purpose

Affective organizational commitment is a construct important to both practitioners and researchers; thus, construct-valid measurement is needed. Allen and Meyer’s (J Occup Psychol 63:1–18, 1990) Affective Commitment Scale is a popular measure of affective organizational commitment. Although conceptualized as unidimensional, a two-factor solution sometimes emerges. Whether the two factors are substantive, reflecting AC-love and AC-joy constructs, or methodological, reflecting positively and negatively worded items, is unclear. This issue is examined in five studies.

Design/Methodology/Approach

In a new approach, conditions designed to produce cognitive fatigue are manipulated. Support for the method factor interpretation would be provided if the two-factor solution emerges only when participants are fatigued and negatively worded items are present. Cross-sample analyses are also conducted.

Findings

Analyses indicated that the two-factor solution fit the data well only when (a) participants were cognitively fatigued and (b) negatively worded items were present. This finding extended to both students and employees, and it held regardless of which items were negatively worded or whether negatively worded items were emphasized.

Implications

Results suggest that the second factor is likely methodological and seems to result from careless responding or fatigue on negatively worded items. It is suggested that users modify the items to be positively worded or administer the scale when respondents have sufficient cognitive resources to respond.

Originality/Value

This study was the first to use experimental methodology to test whether the two-factor solution is methodological or substantive. Results provide guidance for improving the scale’s construct validity in research and in practical applications.     

Demographic Question Placement: Effect on Item Response Rates and Means of a Veterans Health Administration Survey

Purpose

This study examined whether demographic question placement affects demographic and non-demographic question completion rates, non-demographic item means, and blank questionnaire rates using a web-based survey of Veterans Health Administration employees.

Methodology

Data were taken from the 2010 Voice of the Veterans Administration Survey (VoVA), a voluntary, confidential, web-based survey offered to all VA employees. Participants were given two versions of the questionnaires. One version had demographic questions placed at the beginning and the other version had demographic questions placed at the end of the questionnaire.

Findings

Results indicated that placing demographic questions at the beginning of a questionnaire increased item response rate for demographic items without affecting the item response rate for non-demographic items or the average of item mean scores.

Implications

In addition to validity issues, a goal for surveyors is to maximize response rates and to minimize the number of missing responses. It is therefore important to determine which questionnaire characteristics affect these values. Results of this study suggest demographic placement is an important factor.

Originality/Value

There are various opinions about the most advantageous location of demographic questions in questionnaires; however, the issue has rarely been examined empirically. This study uses an experimental design and a large sample size to examine the effects of demographic placement on survey response characteristics.     

The Moderating Role of Locus of Causality in the Relationship Between Source of Information and Psychological Contract Breach Perceptions

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of information-seeking behaviors on the relationship between personality and psychological contract (PC) breach.

Approach

This study takes an interactionist (person × situation) perspective to examine how PC breach can be reduced in organizations. Survey data were obtained from 184 graduate students from psychology departments across the United States on variables related to personality, information-seeking behaviors, and PC breach.

Findings

Results indicated that external locus of causality (LoCa) is positively associated with PC breach, while information seeking from supervisors is negatively associated with breach. From an interactionist perspective, the positive association of external LoCa attribution style with breach was lessened as information seeking from supervisors increased, but heightened for participants who obtained information from peers, but not supervisors.

Implications

Such knowledge can potentially be used to help inform norm-setting strategies of organizations to possibly reduce the unwanted negative effects of PC breach.

Originality

This finding helps advance our theoretic understanding of the intersection between individual differences and situations and is the first study to examine interactions between LoCa and information sources with respect to PC breach.     

Examining Project Commitment in Cross-Functional Teams: Antecedents and Relationship with Team Performance

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to test a model positing both antecedents and consequences of project commitment for members of cross-functional teams. Signaling theory and previous research guided study hypotheses.

Design/Methodology/Approach

We collected primary data from 142 team members and 31 team leaders across 24 cross-functional product development teams nested within six manufacturing organizations in the US and Canada.

Findings

Findings suggest that project commitment among team members is an important driver of team performance as rated by the team leader. In addition, several factors contribute toward shaping project commitment among cross-functional team members, including team leaders’ encouragement of self-expectation, as well as team members’ perceptions of an organization’s support for the team project.

Implications

Cross-functional teams are often charged with completing projects critical to the profitability, growth, and even survival of a firm. Especially as we show that members’ project commitment is a meaningful predictor of team performance, managers may draw insight from study results as to what actions may be taken to promote the development of this important psychological state among members of cross-functional teams.

Originality/Value

Use of cross-functional teams for accomplishing a wide variety of firm objectives is becoming commonplace in organizations. Although theorized as an important construct in cross-functional team settings, empirical examinations of the nature and implications of project commitment have been limited. By examining both antecedents and potential team performance consequences of project commitment in multiple organizations, we contribute toward filling this gap.     

A Framework and Measure for Examining Risk Climate in Financial Institutions

Purpose

The risk environment within organizations and business groups has been identified as a key factor in preventing scandal, unexpected losses, and even insolvency in financial institutions. The objective of this paper is to propose a multilevel framework for investigating risk climate (the shared perceptions among employees of the relative priority given to risk management, including perceptions of the risk-related practices and behaviors that are expected, valued and supported), together with its outcomes and antecedents, and validate a new measure.

Design/Methodology/Approach

A bottom-up phenomenon-driven process was used in scale development. We drew on published case studies, the industry literature, and interviews with subject matter experts. We performed three studies across a total of 10,544 employees in three different banks based in different countries. An online survey methodology was used to first explore and then confirm the factor structure, fit and invariance of our risk climate measure at the individual level of analysis, before progressing to examine fit and invariance across both the individual and business unit level simultaneously.

Findings

We found evidence for four unique factors of risk climate that were invariant across three organizations, two countries, and two levels of analysis (individual and business unit).

Implications

The risk climate scale presented in this paper provides a means by which senior leaders of financial institutions may better understand risk climate and how it varies at the business unit level. This information is relevant both to meet regulatory requirements and as a guide for potential intervention to strengthen or change risk climate.

Originality/Value

This paper provides the first academic study of a new strategic-focused climate construct based on the relative priority given to risk management.

     

Shared Leadership and Innovation: The Role of Vertical Leadership and Employee Integrity

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between shared leadership, as a collective within-team leadership, and innovative behavior, as well as antecedents of shared leadership in terms of team composition and vertical transformational and empowering leadership.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were obtained from a field sample of 43 work teams, comprising 184 team members and their team leaders from two different companies. Team leaders rated the teams’ innovative behavior and their own leadership; team members provided information on their personality and their teams’ shared leadership.

Findings

Shared and vertical leadership, but not team composition, was positively associated with the teams’ level of innovative behavior. Vertical transformational and empowering leadership and team composition in terms of integrity were positively related to shared leadership.

Implications

Understanding how organizations can enhance their own innovation is crucial for the organizations’ competitiveness and survival. Furthermore, the increasing prevalence of teams, as work arrangements in organizations, raises the question of how to successfully manage teams. This study suggests that organizations should facilitate shared leadership which has a positive association with innovation.

Originality/Value

This is one of the first studies to provide evidence of the relationship between shared leadership and innovative behavior, an important organizational outcome. In addition, the study explores two important predictors of shared leadership, transformational and empowering leadership, and the team composition in respect to integrity. While researchers and practitioners agree that shared leadership is important, knowledge on its antecedents is still in its infancy.     

Animates are better remembered than inanimates: further evidence from word and picture stimuli

In three experiments, we showed that animate entities are remembered better than inanimate entities. Experiment 1 revealed better recall for words denoting animate than inanimate items. Experiment 2 replicated this finding with the use of pictures. In Experiment 3, we found better recognition for animate than for inanimate words. Importantly, we also found a higher recall rate of “remember” than of “know” responses for animates, whereas the recall rates were similar for the two types of responses for inanimate items. This finding suggests that animacy enhances not only the quantity but also the quality of memory traces, through the recall of contextual details of previous experiences (i.e., episodic memory). Finally, in Experiment 4, we tested whether the animacy effect was due to animate items being richer in terms of sensory features than inanimate items. The findings provide further evidence for the functionalist view of memory championed by Nairne and coworkers (Nairne, 2010; Nairne & Pandeirada, Cognitive Psychology, 61:1–22, 2010a, 2010b).     

The Moderating Effect of Machiavellianism on the Psychological Contract Breach–Organizational Identification/Disidentification Relationships

Purpose

We explore whether Machiavellianism—a personality trait which describes the extent to which individuals ignore values and ethical considerations when the ends justify the means—will influence their responses to their employing organizations’ failure to fulfil promised obligations (psychological contracts). Specifically, we draw on psychological contracts theory and the group value model to argue that Machiavellianism will moderate the relationships between psychological contract breach and (1) organizational identification; and (2) organizational disidentification.

Design/Methodology/Approach

We tested our hypotheses in a study of 262 employees from various organizations at two points in time.

Findings

We found that psychological contract breach was negatively related to organizational identification and positively related to organizational disidentification. Furthermore, employees with higher levels of Machiavellianism tended to disidentify with their organizations to a greater extent (at Time 2) in response to psychological contract breach (at Time 1) than did employees with low levels of Machiavellianism. Machiavellianism did not moderate the relationship between psychological contract breach and organizational identification.

Implications

Our study contributes to extant research exploring the importance of Machiavellianism in the workplace. Specifically, we show that employees with high levels of Machiavellianism are more likely to disidentify in response to psychological contract breach but do not tend to identify to a lesser degree.

Originality/Value

This study builds on the extant research exploring individual differences in the psychological contract dynamics by considering Machiavellianism as a moderator of the breach–outcome relationship.     

Homogeneity of Personality in Occupations and Organizations: A Comparison of Alternative Statistical Tests

Purpose

The attraction?Cselection?Cattrition (ASA) model has served as the foundation for numerous investigations. However, the generally supportive evidence for ASA??s homogeneity hypothesis has often been based on statistical tests (e.g., MANOVA) that rely on between-group differences to evaluate within-group agreement. The primary purpose of this article was to discuss advantages of direct statistical tests of homogeneity??average deviation (AD) and r _wg??when testing ASA??s homogeneity hypothesis, and advantages of other statistical tests for testing other aspects of ASA theory. A secondary goal was to evaluate the extent to which occupational homogeneity is distinct from organizational homogeneity.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were obtained from the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) and included scores on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator^? (MBTI) personality measure for 1,103 managers from 25 organizations and 17 occupations.

Findings

Results were generally supportive of the homogeneity hypothesis. AD values showed that most groups were homogeneous on most assessed personality dimensions. A comparison analysis using traditional statistical tests (i.e., MANOVA) indirectly suggested within-group homogeneity by revealing a significant between-groups effect. In addition, results suggested possible boundary conditions to ASA; notably, meaningful heterogeneity was observed for the S?CN (sensing-intuition) MBTI^? dimension.

Implications

The current study provides direct support for ASA??s homogeneity hypothesis for both organizations and occupations and offers guidance for future research on ASA theory and its possible boundary conditions.

Originality/Value

This is one of the first studies to test the predictions of ASA in both organizations and occupations using a direct index of agreement.     

Kreuzvalidierung der Kurzform des Kindheitsfragebogens

Objectives

Existing questionnaires about parent-child relationships usually assess love and control only. The childhood questionnaire (CQ) offers a more differentiating alternative.

Methods

In a sample of approximately 1,400 patients and more than 500 controls the CQ was reduced from 22 to 11 scales and the number of items of each scale was shortened to 5.

Results

The shortened scales of the CQ also showed good reliability and item characteristics, as well as plausible intercorrelations.

Conclusion

By the use of 66 out of the former 128 items, the shortened version of the CQ assesses three further important dimensions in the parent-child relationship of adults towards their parents in childhood besides love and control: punishment, ambition and role reversal. Beside this, parental separation, divorce and job status as well as various parameters of the socio-economic status (e.g. educational, occupational and financial) of the parents can be assessed.     

The Mediating Role of Discrete Emotions in the Relationship Between Injustice and Counterproductive Work Behaviors: A Study in Pakistan

Purpose

Our study explores the mediating role of discrete emotions in the relationships between employee perceptions of distributive and procedural injustice, regarding an annual salary raise, and counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs).

Design/Methodology/Approach

Survey data were provided by 508 individuals from telecom and IT companies in Pakistan. Confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping were used to test our hypothesized model.

Findings

We found a good fit between the data and our tested model. As predicted, anger (and not sadness) was positively related to aggressive CWBs (abuse against others and production deviance) and fully mediated the relationship between perceived distributive injustice and these CWBs. Against predictions, however, neither sadness nor anger was significantly related to employee withdrawal.

Implications

Our findings provide organizations with an insight into the emotional consequences of unfair HR policies, and the potential implications for CWBs. Such knowledge may help employers to develop training and counseling interventions that support the effective management of emotions at work. Our findings are particularly salient for national and multinational organizations in Pakistan.

Originality/Value

This is one of the first studies to provide empirical support for the relationships between in/justice, discrete emotions and CWBs in a non-Western (Pakistani) context. Our study also provides new evidence for the differential effects of outward/inward emotions on aggressive/passive CWBs.     

The Impact of Managerial Coaching Behavior on Employee Work-Related Reactions

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between perceived managerial coaching behavior and employee work-related outcomes.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were collected from 482 employees in a Korean public organization. The collected data were analyzed by structural equation modeling with a two-step approach.

Findings

The hypothesized conceptual model was adequately supported by the sample data. Further investigations suggested managerial coaching, which had a direct impact on employee satisfaction with work and role clarity and an indirect impact on satisfaction with work, career commitment, organization commitment, and job performance.

Implications

Findings provide empirical support to the hypothesized conceptual model of managerial coaching outcomes in organizations. Study findings offer evidence regarding prospective, but unexamined, benefits of managerial coaching. Such knowledge can be also used by practitioners for selecting and developing effective managers and leaders and understanding and managing employee attitudes and behaviors in organizations.

Originality/Value

This article is one of the first studies to provide evidence for the influence of managerial coaching behavior on employee role cognition, work attitudes, and performance. Since there is no commonly acknowledged theory or conceptual model for managerial coaching outcomes, this finding of the current hypothesized model can notably contribute to the research on managerial coaching. Furthermore, to date, no study of managerial coaching in Asian cultural contexts has been identified.     

Trauma und sexuelle Störungen

Background

Sexual disorders are common among patients with traumatic childhood experiences, especially when they were exposed to sexual abuse. Despite the fact that trauma-associated sexual disorders imply serious consequences for the persons concerned, to date the topic has not found much consideration in the research and clinical contexts.

Material and methods

This study investigated the prevalence and relationships of sexual disorders and experiences of sexual abuse in 189 patients (81?% women, 19?% men) with complex posttraumatic stress disorder. All participants completed the Interview zur Diagnostik der komplexen posttraumatischen Belastungsstörung (I-kPTBS, interview on diagnostics of complex posttraumatic stress disorder) and the traumatic antecedents questionnaire (TAQ).

Results

At least one sexual disorder was found in 77.2?% of the participants. In both sexes hyposexual disorders were more common than hypersexual disorders. Women showed more hyposexual disorders than men and men showed more hypersexual disorders than women. Of the participants 50.8?% reported experiences of sexual abuse and women were more often affected than men. The presence of hyposexual disorders was clearly associated with the existence of experiences of child sexual abuse.

Conclusion

There is a need for research on and effective treatment concepts for trauma-associated sexual disorders. The development of new therapeutic approaches should be realized in interdisciplinary cooperation.