Workplace harassment/abuse and alcohol-related outcomes: The mediating role of psychological distress

Objective: This article embraces a tension-reduction or self-medication perspective on alcohol use and misuse, It empirically addresses the role that psychological distress plays in mediating the relationships between harassing and abusive interpersonal experiences in the workplace and altered alcohol use and misuse, Method: A mail survey was completed by 2,038 university employees (1,098 women and 940 men) at two points in time. Specific hypotheses were tested involving ( 1) the extent to which the onset and chronicity of harassment and abuse predicted varied Wave-2 drinking outcomes. (2) the extent to which the onset and chronicity of harassment and abuse predicted three forms of Wave-2 psychological distress, (3) the associations between Wave-2 psychological distress and drinking outcomes and (4) the extent to which the associations between harassment, abuse and drinking outcomes disappeared when the salient forms of symptomatic distress functioned as control variables, Results: The data showed that harassment and abuse predicted drinking outcomes and psychological distress, and that the associations between harassment, abuse and drinking outcomes were partially mediated by distress. Conclusions: The findings lend support to the tension-reduction perspective and have important implications for intervention and prevention involving workplace harassment and abuse.