*3.2. Associations of Weight Status and Experiences of Workplace Bullying with Psychological Health Impairments*

The results of the path analyses are presented in Figure 1 for all models. All models showed good model fit, as depicted in Table 2. In Model 1, a significant direct effect of a higher weight status on elevated burnout symptoms (β = 0.10) and a lower quality of life

(β = −0.13) was found. In Model 2, a higher weight status was significantly associated with more experiences of workplace bullying (β = 0.08), with the latter being associated with higher burnout symptoms (β = 0.29) and with a lower quality of life (β = −0.22), showing the indirect effect of weight status on psychological health impairments. In this final model, a higher weight status was still associated with elevated burnout symptoms (β = 0.07) and with a lower quality of life (β = −0.11), thus indicating partial mediation effects of experiences of workplace bullying on the association between higher weight status and elevated burnout symptoms and a lower quality of life.

**Figure 1.** Models 1 to 4: Direct and indirect effects of weight status and workplace bullying on psychological health impairments while controlling for sociodemographic variables. Notes: Standardized regression weights are depicted. Only significant associations are depicted. Different significance levels are depicted with black lines (*p* < 0.001) or gray lines (*p* < 0.05). Burnout symptoms measured by Burnout Screening Scales II. Quality of life measured by Euro-Qol Quality of Life Index. SES = socioeconomic status.

**Table 2.** Path analysis on the mediating effect of workplace bullying on associations between weight status and psychological health impairments: model fit indices.


Notes. *df* = degrees of freedom; BMI = body mass index (kg/m2); CMIN/DF = minimum discrepancy, divided by degrees of freedom; CFI = comparative-fit index; RMSEA = root mean square error of approximation; TLI = Tucker–Lewis index; NFI = normed fit index.

> In sex-specific analyses, we found that weight status was positively associated with experiences of workplace bullying for women (Model 3, β = 0.12), but not for men (Model 4, β = 0.06), thus alone suggesting no mediational effect of experiences of workplace bullying

in men. In women, but not in men, a higher weight status was associated with elevated burnout symptoms (β = 0.08) and with a lower quality of life (β = −0.13). Utilizing the PROCESS macro [37], we affirmatively found the mediational effect of experiences of workplace bullying to be moderated by sex. Specifically, while we found direct effects of weight status on burnout symptoms (β = 0.09) and quality of life (β = −0.36) for women and men, indirect effects (i.e., mediated by experiences of workplace bullying) were only evident for women, but not for men, regarding both burnout symptoms (β = 0.03) and quality of life (β = 0.07). Thus, specifically for women, experiences of workplace bullying partially mediated the association between a higher weight status and elevated burnout symptoms and a lower quality of life.
