Work stressors and alcohol consumption among whitecollar workers: A signal detection approach

Objective: Previous findings regarding the relationship between work stress and alcohol consumption are inconsistent and inconclusive. One of the primary reasons for the inconsistency of the findings is that simple models, such as multiple regression analysis or analysis of variance (ANOVA), have been conventionally adopted in studies examining the relationship between work stressors and alcohol consumption. Since higher order interactions of multiple work stressors, which lead to heavy alcohol consumption, might not be fully uncovered within the framework of a multiple regression analysis or ANOVA, another approach to exploring the interactions of work stressors is presented in this study. Method: A signal detection analysis method was used to evaluate higher order interactions of work stress variables and to obtain basic information on 465 Japanese male whitecollar workers. Results: Of 11 work stressor or work position variables, four significant predictors of heavy alcohol consumption were identified. Conclusions: Two procedures were successfully performed in this study: (1) evaluating several higher order interactions of work stressors associated with heavy alcohol consumption, and (2) obtaining basic information to permit dividing the subjects into subgroups for further analysis using models and independent variables unique to each subgroup.