Alienation and Alcohol: The Role of Work, Mastery, and Community in Drinking Behavior

The correlates of drinking behavior, and of drinking problems, are examined, using a sample of some 450 employed males in a metropolitan community. Multiple indices bearing on three domains of alienation-work experience, powerlessness, and social isolation-are employed to predict drinking habits and problems. Regression and covariance analyses establish that: (1) the sense of low control (high powerlessness) is consistently associated with heavier drinking and with drinking problems; (2) contrary to predictions that derive from an emphasis on the centrality of work, none of the work experience indices (e.g., job satisfaction, substantive complexity, or the level of intrinsic reward in work) is significantly associated with drinking phenomena; and (3) the hypothesis that social integration might serve as a buffer (ameliorating the negative impact of high powerlessness or of alienated work) is not supported since high social involvement correlates positively with heavier drinking. An analysis of the interaction among the three forms of alienation indicates that though powerlessness has the most consistent main effect, engagement in alienated work and involvement in social networks combine with powerlessness to yield distinctive drinking patterns.