Supervisor Undermining, Social Isolation and Subordinates' Problematic Drinking: The Role of Depression and Perceived Drinking Norms.

Findings regarding the mechanism underlying the impact of supervisor incivility on subordinate alcohol misuse remain equivocal. Specifically, some studies indicate that stress mediates the impact of supervisor incivility on subordinate alcohol misuse, while others, find no evidence for such an effect, suggesting the need to investigate other mechanisms. Extending Conservation of Resource (COR) theory and employing a longitudinal study design, this study examines two alternative mechanisms grounded on social isolation. The first suggests drinking as a resource-mobilizing response, with social isolation eliciting the perception of more permissive injunctive drinking norms, thus facilitating problematic drinking. The second suggests problematic drinking as a mode of coping with a negative emotional state elicited by social isolation, namely depression. Findings indicate that supervisor undermining's association with subsequent subordinate problematic drinking is serially mediated by social isolation and depression, with no support found for the first mechanism. Implications for research, practice and policy are discussed.

Behavior change versus stability during the college-to-work transition: Life course and the "stickiness" of alcohol misuse at career entry.

To what extent and under what conditions do college graduates disengage from employment-incompatible behaviors during the college-to-work transition? Drawing from the life course perspective, we proposed a model highlighting considerable stability of employment-incompatible behaviors during initial months of organizational socialization. Our model predicted that maturing out of such behaviors, which is expected by employers and beneficial to career adjustment, would be more likely to occur given a conducive transition context. Using a large dataset tracking graduates from their last semester in college to up to approximately 1.5 years after graduation and with alcohol use as our empirical referent, we demonstrated that a pattern of high-risk drinking behavior may remain even after the transition into full-time employment. We further showed that lower levels of perceived cohort drinking norms and higher levels of mentoring were associated with a higher probability of maturing out, manifesting in a transition from a high-risk drinking profile before graduation to a moderate drinking profile after starting full-time employment. Finally, we found that maturing out was associated with lagged outcomes including lower levels of sleep problems and depression and fewer work days lost to absenteeism, thus underscoring the consequential nature of behavior profile shifts during the college-to-work transition.

Does college alcohol consumption impact employment upon graduation? Findings from a prospective study.

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 103(1) of Journal of Applied Psychology (see record 2017-44578-001). In the article, the authors incorrectly used the term "probability" instead of the term "odds" when relating to the impact of drinking in college on post-graduation employment. The abstract should note "a roughly 10% reduction in the odds...", and in the 2nd paragraph of the Discussion section, (a) "a roughly 10% lower probability" should be "a roughly 10% lower odds", and (b) "their probability of full-time employment upon graduation is roughly 6% lower than..." should be "their odds of full-time employment upon graduation is roughly 6% lower than..." All versions of this article have been corrected.] Although scholars have extensively studied the impact of academic and vocational factors on college students' employment upon graduation, we still know little as to how students' health-related behaviors influence such outcomes. Focusing on student alcohol use as a widely prevalent, health-related behavior, in the current study, we examined the employment implications of student drinking behavior. Drawing from literature examining the productivity effects of drinking and research on job search, we posited that modal quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption, as well as the frequency of heavy episodic drinking (HED) adversely impact the probability of employment upon graduation. Using data from 827 graduating seniors from 4 geographically diverse universities in the United States collected in the context of a prospective study design, we found modal alcohol consumption to have no adverse effect on the likelihood of employment upon graduation. However, we did find a significant adverse effect for the frequency of heavy drinking, with the data suggesting a roughly 10% reduction in the odds of employment upon graduation among college seniors who reported engaging in the average level of HED. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Prevalence and Distribution of Aging-Friendly Human Resource Practices.

The aging of the workforce in the developed world has prompted organizations to implement human resource (HR) policies and practices encouraging older workers to defer retirement. However, little is known about the prevalence of such practices, and the organizational factors associated with their adoption. In this study, we used data collected from 2008 to 2009 from a national probability sample of retirement eligible workers in the United States (N = 407) to assess the prevalence of aging-friendly human resource practices (AFHRP), and their organizational predictors. Results indicate that employee wellness programs, unpaid leave, and reassignment based on physical needs are among the most prevalent AFHRP. However, in the vast majority of enterprises, AFHRP are limited. Results also indicate that projected organizational growth and a focus on internal labor market practices are positively associated with the adoption of AFHRP. Organizational size and the degree of unionization, while positively associated with aging-friendly benefits, were inversely associated with flexibility practices.

Effect of yohimbine on reinstatement of operant responding in rats is dependent on cue contingency but not food reward history.

Yohimbine is an alpha-2 adrenoceptor antagonist that has been used in numerous studies as a pharmacological stressor in rodents, monkeys and humans. Recently, yohimbine has become the most common stress manipulation in studies on reinstatement of drug and food seeking. However, the wide range of conditions under which yohimbine promotes reward seeking is significantly greater than that of stressors like intermittent footshock. Here, we addressed two fundamental questions regarding yohimbine's effect on reinstatement of reward seeking: (1) whether the drug's effect on operant responding is dependent on previous reward history or cue contingency, and (2) whether yohimbine is aversive or rewarding under conditions typically used in reinstatement studies. We also used in vivo microdialysis to determine yohimbine's effect on dopamine levels in nucleus accumbens (NAc) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). We found that the magnitude of yohimbine-induced (0.5, 1.0, 2.0 mg/kg) operant responding during the reinstatement tests was critically dependent on the contingency between lever pressing and discrete tone-light cue delivery but not the previous history with food reward during training. We also found that yohimbine (2 mg/kg) did not cause conditioned place aversion. Finally, we found that yohimbine modestly increased dopamine levels in mPFC but not NAc. Results suggest that yohimbine's effects on operant responding in reinstatement studies are likely independent of the history of contingent self-administration of food or drug rewards and may not be related to the commonly assumed stress-like effects of yohimbine.

Effect of cafeteria diet history on cue-, pellet-priming-, and stress-induced reinstatement of food seeking in female rats.

BACKGROUND: Relapse to unhealthy eating habits is a major problem in human dietary treatment. The individuals most commonly seeking dietary treatment are overweight or obese women, yet the commonly used rat reinstatement model to study relapse to palatable food seeking during dieting primarily uses normal-weight male rats. To increase the clinical relevance of the relapse to palatable food seeking model, here we pre-expose female rats to a calorically-dense cafeteria diet in the home-cage to make them overweight prior to examining the effect of this diet history on cue-, pellet-priming- and footshock-induced reinstatement of food seeking. METHODS: Post-natal day 32 female Long-Evans rats had seven weeks of home-cage access to either chow only or daily or intermittent cafeteria diet alongside chow. Next, they were trained to self-administer normally preferred 45 mg food pellets accompanied by a tone-light cue. After extinction, all rats were tested for reinstatement induced by discrete cue, pellet-priming, and intermittent footshock under extinction conditions. RESULTS: Access to daily cafeteria diet and to a lesser degree access to intermittent cafeteria diet decreased food pellet self-administration compared to chow-only. Prior history of these cafeteria diets also reduced extinction responding, cue- and pellet-priming-induced reinstatement. In contrast, modest stress-induced reinstatement was only observed in rats with a history of daily cafeteria diet. CONCLUSION: A history of cafeteria diet does not increase the propensity for cue- and pellet-priming-induced relapse in the rat reinstatement model but does appear to make rats more susceptible to footshock stress-induced reinstatement.

Income decline and retiree well-being: the moderating role of attachment.

Given that it influences the appraisal of situations and the utilization of coping resources, attachment orientation may condition the effects of retirement-related stressors on retiree well-being. Focusing on depression, psychosomatic complaints and health, as well as income decline as a retirement-related stressor, we followed a sample of workers from just before retirement to up to 7 years postretirement. Results indicate that attachment avoidance-but not anxiety-moderates the adverse effects of income decline on well-being, with such effects more pronounced among individuals reporting higher levels of attachment avoidance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Effects of job control and situational severity on the timing of help-seeking.

Studies suggest that the psychopathological effects of involvement in critical incidents among emergency service workers failing to seek help in a timely manner may be detrimental both for the individual and for the organization. However, little is known as to the factors governing when individuals seek such help. Consequently, drawing from the help-seeking and coping literatures, we generate a theory explicating how job characteristics (namely, job control) and situational factors (namely, the severity of incident involvement) combine to influence help-seeking delay or, in other words, the amount of time that passes before employees seek help for incident-related distress. Using data collected from firefighters who were involved at varying degrees of intensity in the events in and around the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, we demonstrate that increasing levels of situational severity influence the relationship between job-control and help-seeking delay with job control having a curvilinear association with help-seeking delay under conditions of high situational severity.

Workforce Disengagement Stressors and Retiree Alcohol Misuse: The Mediating Effects of Sleep Problems and the Moderating Effects of Gender.

We generate and test a moderated mediation model of the effects of two retirement-related stressors (namely, financial and marital) on the severity of alcohol misuse among retirees. We posit that in addition to using alcohol to cope with stressors in retirement, alcohol may also be used to self-medicate the secondary, sleep-related effects of such stressors, and that gender serves as a key boundary condition, moderating the impact of such stressors on sleep-related problems, and of sleep-related problems on alcohol misuse. Using longitudinal data collected from a sample of 292 retirees, our findings generally support this model, suggesting that both stressors are associated with the severity of alcohol misuse among male retirees. Moreover, our findings demonstrate that -- for male retirees -- the effect of both stressors on the severity of alcohol misuse is to a large extent secondary to the stressors themselves, mediated by the sleep-related problems they may generate.

Social support and employee well-being: the conditioning effect of perceived patterns of supportive exchange.

Seeking to explain divergent empirical findings regarding the direct effect of social support on well-being, the authors posit that the pattern of supportive exchange (i.e., reciprocal, under-, or over-reciprocating) determines the impact of receiving support on well-being. Findings generated on the basis of longitudinal data collected from a sample of older blue-collar workers support the authors' predictions, indicating that receiving emotional support is associated with enhanced well-being when the pattern of supportive exchange is perceived by an individual as being reciprocal (support received equals support given), with this association being weaker when the exchange of support is perceived as being under-reciprocating (support given exceeds support received). Moreover, receiving support was found to adversely affect well-being when the pattern of exchange was perceived as being over-reciprocating (support received exceeds support given). Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Alcohol consumption and workplace absenteeism: the moderating effect of social support.

Although it is commonly assumed that alcohol consumption has a significant impact on employee absenteeism, the nature of the alcohol-absence relationship remains poorly understood. Proposing that alcohol impairment likely serves as a key mechanism linking drinking and work absence, we posit that this relationship is likely governed less by the amount of alcohol consumed and more by the way it is consumed. Using a prospective study design and a random sample of urban transit workers, we found that the frequency of heavy episodic drinking over the previous month is positively associated with the number of days of absence recorded in the subsequent 12-month period, whereas modal consumption (a metric capturing the typical amount of alcohol consumed in a given period of time) is not. In addition, consistent with both volitional treatments of absenteeism and social exchange theory, perceived coworker support was found to attenuate, and supervisory support to amplify, the link between the frequency of heavy episodic drinking and absenteeism.

Retirement and drug abuse: the conditioning role of age and retirement trajectory.

Although recent research on the link between retirement and drinking behavior among older adults suggests that retirement may also serve as a risk factor for drug abuse, the latter association has yet to be subject to rigorous research. We examined this association, as well as the possible conditioning effects of age and retirement trajectory, using a sample of 978 retirement-eligible workers (some having retired, others deferring their retirement) from 3 blue-collar employment sectors: (e.g., construction, manufacturing, and transportation). The findings indicate a weak but significant positive association between retirement and the severity of drug abuse. Age moderated the retirement-drug abuse relationship with - among older workers - higher rates of drug abuse found among those deferring retirement and lower rates among those actually retiring, and the exact opposite pattern found among younger retirement-eligible workers. Also, as hypothesized, the moderating effects of age on the association between retirement and drug abuse were weaker among those opting to return to work post-retirement as opposed to those fully retiring.

Firefighters, critical incidents, and drinking to cope: the adequacy of unit-level performance resources as a source of vulnerability and protection.

The authors investigated the moderating role of unit-level performance resources on the distress-mediated relationship between the intensity of involvement in workplace critical incidents and problematic drinking behavior (i.e., drinking to cope). Building on recent developments in hierarchical linear modeling, the authors tested a cross-level, moderated-mediation model using data from 1,481 firefighters in 144 companies. The findings indicate that (a) there is a significant, distress-mediated association between intensity of involvement in such incidents and drinking to cope, which varies by company (i.e., unit), and (b) the adequacy of unit-level performance resources explains much of this cross-unit variance and attenuates both individual-level mediation stages (i.e., intensity of involvement in critical incidents 3 distress, and distress 3 drinking to cope). Implications regarding the role of unit resources adequacy as a vulnerability factor in stressor-strain relations are discussed.

Aging and drinking problems among mature adults: the moderating effects of positive alcohol expectancies and workforce disengagement.

OBJECTIVE: This article examines the relationship between aging and drinking problems among mature workers and the moderating effects of positive alcohol expectancies (PAEs) and workforce disengagement. METHOD: This longitudinal study collected data on mature adults (i.e., retirement eligible) in three employment sectors (i.e., construction, manufacturing, and transportation) over five periods: T1 was 6 months before their retirement eligibility date and T5 was 4 years afterward. AtT1, 1,122 subjects participated in the survey; at T5, 917 participated in the survey. Problem drinking was assessed in all five waves by the Drinking Problems Index. PAEs were measured at T4 and T5 by the Alcohol Outcomes Expectancies Scale. Workforce disengagement was assessed by subjects' employment status at T5 (i.e., still working despite eligibility versus fully retired/not working). Control variables were employment sector, age at T1, and gender. RESULTS: PAEs moderated the relationship between aging and drinking problems: High PAEs were associated with an increase in drinking problems, whereas low PAEs were associated with a decrease in drinking problems. With regard to disengagement, continuing to work amplified the moderating effects of PAEs on the relationship between aging and drinking problems, whereas the moderating effects of PAEs were attenuated for the fully retired. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides further evidence of the significance of PAEs and drinking problems among mature adults, particularly as they are conditioned by disengagement from work. Implications for employee/member assistance program are discussed.

Perceived Agency in Retirement and Retiree Drinking Behavior: Job Satisfaction as a Moderator.

Based on recent findings that post-retirement adjustment may be influenced by the conditions leading up to the decision to retire, we examine the impact of individual agency in the retirement decision on problematic drinking behavior, as well as the extent to which such an effect may itself depend upon the valence of the pre-retirement work experience. Using a sample of 304 blue-collar retirees, our findings indicate that, when controlling for pre-retirement drinking behavior, perceptions of retirement as the result of a more forced or involuntary decision are associated with greater alcohol consumption, while perceptions of retirement as the result of a more volitional or voluntary process are associated with lower levels of alcohol consumption and a lower risk of problematic drinking behavior. Our results also indicate that pre-retirement job satisfaction amplifies the former relationship, while attenuating the latter one.

Harassing under the influence: the prevalence of male heavy drinking, the embeddedness of permissive workplace drinking norms, and the gender harassment of female coworkers.

Drawing from the literature linking alcohol consumption and aggressive behavior, the authors examine the degree to which the risk of gender harassment toward female workers may be associated with the drinking behaviors and perceived workplace drinking norms of their male coworkers. Using multilevel analyses to examine data from 1,301 workers (including 262 women employed in 58 work units in the manufacturing, service and construction sectors), our findings indicate that, even when controlling for a variety of other demographic and unit-level factors, there is a significant association between the proportion of males in a work unit identified as being heavy or "at-risk" drinkers and the probability of gender harassment toward unit females. Our findings further indicate that this association is amplified as a function of the embeddedness of permissive workplace drinking norms among males' referent others.

Retirement, risky alcohol consumption and drinking problems among blue-collar workers.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we assess the initial effects of employment status (not yet retired/continued employment, retirement with bridge employment and full retirement) on the alcohol consumption and drinking problems of retirement-eligible blue-collar workers. METHOD: Data were collected at two points from a random sample of members of nine unions within 6 months of retirement eligibility. Alcohol consumption and drinking problem data were collected from 1279 members 6 months prior to retirement-eligibility (T1) and from 1083 retained respondents 1 year later (T2). At T2 respondents were categorized as (1) not yet retired, (2) retired but engaging in bridge employment or (3) fully retired. RESULTS: Across all of the models tested, alcohol consumption and drinking behaviors at T1 were significant predictors of those same patterns of consumption or behavior at T2 and explained the greatest proportion of the variance in those same patterns at T2, suggesting that alcohol consumption and drinking behaviors remain largely stable over the period of time in which individuals become eligible to retire. Nevertheless, taking into account the effects of periodic heavy drinking prior to retirement and a variety of other factors, individuals opting to retire fully were twice as likely to engage in periodic heavy drinking (odds ratio = 2.01, p < .05) as those continuing to work. Bridge employment (as compared with continued employment) was also associated with significantly higher quantities of alcohol consumed on average drinking occasions (Beta = 0.14, p < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Retirement, at least in its early stages, is not associated with major shifts in alcohol consumption or problem drinking status. However, the particular retirement trajectory taken may have significant implications for individuals.