Association between workplace gaslighting, mental health and work life in nurses: a cross-sectional study in Greece

Workplace gaslighting is an alarming issue. However, the negative consequences of workplace gaslighting in nurses are unknown. In this context, our aim was to examine the association between workplace gaslighting and nurses' mental health and work life.

We conducted an online cross-sectional study in Greece during December 2024. We employed a convenience sample of nurses. We used the Gaslighting at Work Scale (GWS) to measure levels of workplace gaslighting among our nurses. We used the Patient Health Questionnaire-4, the Quiet Quitting Scale, and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-3 to measure anxiety-like symptoms, depressive-like symptoms, quiet quitting, and work engagement, respectively.

The study population included 369 nurses with a mean age of 37.86 years. We found a positive association between workplace gaslighting, anxiety-like symptoms, and depressive-like symptoms in our nurses. After adjustment for confounders, we found a positive association between GWS scores and anxiety-like symptoms (adjusted b = 0.758, 95% CI = 0.606 to 0.909, p < 0.001), and depressive-like symptoms (adjusted b = 0.720, 95% CI = 0.555 to 0.885, p < 0.001). Moreover, our multivariable models showed a positive association between GWS scores and quiet quitting (adjusted b = 0.258, 95% CI = 0.186 to 0.330, p < 0.001). Also, we found a negative association between GWS scores and work engagement (adjusted b = -0.353, 95% CI = -0.512 to -0.195, p < 0.001).

Our findings suggest that nurses who experience higher levels of gaslighting from their supervisors have more anxiety-like symptoms and depressive-like symptoms. Moreover, workplace gaslighting is associated with quiet quitting and work engagement. However, considering the cross-sectional nature of our study and the study limitations, further research should be conducted to extract more valid results.