The research literature provides substantial evidence demonstrating the relationship between work-related stress and substance use and other negative health outcomes. Few studies, however, have examined these relationships among women or considered the influences of both work and family stressors. Moreover, with rare exception, there is a lot of research involving careful evaluation of the effectivenes of work-based prevention intrventions in reducing the incidence and extent of stres-related substance use. The proposed research project has two primary aims. The first is to examine the effectiveness of two work-based preventive interventions with female clerical workers. Participants will be assigned to either an employee-only intervention, a combined supervisor-employee intervention, or a no-treatment control condition. Employees in the two treatment conditions will participate in a 15-session intervention aimed at increasing the range and quality of coping skills in relation to work and family stress. The combined supervisor-employee intervention also will include a 5-session training program to enhance supervisors' management skills. Employee coping skills and supervisor management skills are seen as key mediating variables which can moderate the relationship between work and family stressors, on the one hand, and substance use and other maladaptive responses, on the other. Data analysis will examine the extent of coping skill acquisition, the immediate and longer-term impact of the interventions on substance use and other psychological and health indicators, and the differential effectiveness of the interventions for employees who show different baseline stress levels.
The second aim i s to analyze patterns of stess-related substance use among female clerical workers. Analyses will be used to determine the prevalence of substance use among this population and to examine the degreee of interrelatedness of substance use with selected risk factors and with other negative psychological and health indicators. The analyses will be performed in a cross- sectional basis for all study participants using pretest data and on a longitudinal basis for the no-treatment control group. The study will contribute to our understanding of the effectiveness of work-based preventive interventions in reducing substance use and other maladaptive outcomes. In addition, it will provide an important epidemiological profile and risk factor studying working women.
