A clear need exists for further longitudinal research to test the effectiveness of work-based interventions in reducing stress-related alcohol and drug use, to examine the role of risk and protective factors in the occurrence of alcohol and drug abuse, and to study the relationship of substance use to indices of work adjustment. The proposed research project has three major aims. The first is to assess the effectiveness of a work-based coping skills intervention with male and female employees. Participants will be randomly assigned to either a coping skills intervention, attention control condition, or no-treatment control condition. Employees in the coping skills intervention will participate in a 16-session program aimed at increasing the range and quality of coping strategies and at reducing the use of maladaptive coping responses. The attention control condition will consist of an 8-session program which will provide information about work and family stress, typical stress responses, and various patterns of substance use. Data analyses will examine the extent to which the coping skills intervention, on an immediate and longer-term basis, results in a decrease in perceived role stress and use of avoidance coping, an increase in reported levels of work and non-work social support and use of positive coping strategies, and a decrease in alcohol and drug use, work adjustment problems, and psychological symptomatology. In addition, the differential effectiveness of the intervention for employees at higher versus lower risk for alcohol abuse will be assessed.
The second aim i s to examine the relationships between selected risk and protective factors and alcohol and drug use. These relationships will be assessed on both a cross-sectional and longitudinal basis.
The third aim i s to examine the relationship between alcohol and drug use and indices of work adjustment. Comparisons of abusers and non-abusers on levels of work adjustment problems will be performed, and the extent to which alcohol and drug use is predictive of work adjustment over time will be assessed. The study will contribute to our understanding of the effectiveness of work-based interventions in reducing alcohol and drug use and other maladaptive outcomes. In addition, it will provide an important alcohol risk factor study of working men and women.
