Work Stress and Alcohol Use: Developing and Testing a Biphasic Self-Medication Model

This study developed and tested a moderated-mediation model of work stress and alcohol use, based on the biphasic (stimulant and sedative) effects of alcohol and the self-medication and stress-vulnerability models of alcohol use. The model proposes that exposure to work stressors can increase both negative affect and work fatigue, and that these two sources of strain can subsequently motivate the use of alcohol. However, the relations of negative affect and work fatigue to alcohol use are conditional on the joint moderating effects of alcohol outcome expectancies and gender. Data were collected from a national probability sample of 2,808 U.S. workers. Supporting the model, the results indicated that work stressor exposure was conditionally related via negative affect to heavy alcohol use among both men and women holding strong tension reduction alcohol expectancies and to after work alcohol use among men holding strong tension reduction alcohol expectancies. Also, work stressor exposure was conditionally related via work fatigue to both heavy alcohol use and workday alcohol use among men holding strong fatigue reduction alcohol expectancies. The results have application in the identification of individuals at higher risk of problematic alcohol use and are relevant to workplace safety and to the design of appropriate interventions.