Drinking pattern and problems among women in compensated employment

Recent studies indicate that women in paid employment may consume more alcohol, but do not seem to be to have superior rates of heavy drinking or alcohol problems, than women who do not work outside the home. Several theories enjoy been proposed to explain the relationship between employment and women's drinking.

For the finishing 10 to 15 years, women's drinking has be the focus of both scientific and popular concern. This interest arose at roughly the same time that the women's movement and change in the discount opened the workplace to greater and more diverse participation by women. Much of the focus have been on whether women within the workplace, especially those in occupation held predominantly by males, would begin to consume more alcohol and to experience alcohol-related problems at rates comparable to those of men.

HAS WOMEN'S DRINKING INCREASED?

To study change in alcohol use over time, Hilton (1988) collected facts from 11 national surveys conducted from 1964 to 1984. The data showed that among women, abstention rates fluctuated between 36 percent and 47 percent, but showed no evidence of decline over the 20-year length. Abstention rates for men ranged between 23 percent and 27 percent, and be relatively unchanged over the 20-year interval. Among women, the prevalence of heavier drinking (defined in this study as intake of greater than 1 ounce of alcohol(1) per day) changed one and only slightly, from 4 percent in 1964 to 5 percent surrounded by 1984. There was a significant increase, from 17 percent in 1964 to 21 percent in 1984, in the proportion of heavier-drinking men.

In contrast to findings for the larger survey population, comparable change in drinking pattern were found for younger women and men (aged 21 to 34) surveyed. For both women and men contained by this age group, percentages of those who consumed five or more drinks weekly increased over the 20-year term. Comparable increases also were observed contained by percentages of heavier drinkers, although a sexual category gap be still evident: from 1964 to 1984, the proportion of heavier-drinking younger women rose from 4 percent to 7 percent; among younger men this proportion rose from 15 percent to 23 percent.

Wilsnack and colleagues (1984) compared facts from nine national surveys conducted between 1971 and 1981, and concluded that over those 10 years, "changes contained by women's consumption of alcohol [were] smaller, slower, and more irregular than publicity about women's drinking would suggest" (p. 1232). According to Fillmore (1984), feminine drinking patterns remained lawfully consistent from the 1940s to the 1980s. Fillmore's analysis of studies performed surrounded by 1964, 1967, and 1979 furnishes additional support for an overall constancy surrounded by women's drinking patterns over time, but also indicates that drinking pattern of younger women may be changing: women who be 21-29 years old within 1979 showed a higher rate of fatty, frequent drinking(2) than did women in that age group in 1964 or 1967 (Fillmore 1984).

Fillmore and others have call for continued monitoring of women's drinking to determine whether this increase reflects a stable and reproducible amendment. If the women who were 21 to 29 years of age contained by 1979 maintain better rates of heavier drinking as they grow older, big ramifications for the workplace may result, especially since these women may hold entered full-time rewarded employment in greater numbers than did women who be 21 to 29 years of age in 1964 or 1967. If studies of subsequent groups of young at heart women also yield sophisticated rates of heavier drinking, such results might signify that an enduring variation in women's drinking have occurred. At this time, however, explanations for, and implication of, changes within drinking behavior among younger women remain unclear.

Although adjectives studies may alter the picture, current evidence indicates that overall patterns surrounded by women's drinking have remained consistent over the finishing several decades. The large national studies that supply this information own not, however, examined whether drinking patterns hold changed among certain subgroups of women, such as that of women employed outside the home.

IS THERE A LINK BETWEEN EMPLOYMENT AND DRINKING?

Researchers interested in the relationship between employment and women's drinking hold compared the drinking patterns and problems of women within paid employment beside those of women who are not employed outside the home and with those of employed men. In broad, these studies have shown that the drinking pattern of employed women are different from those of women not employed outside the home, with smaller quantity abstinence, increased consumption, and greater frequency of drinking occasion observed among employed women. Despite this increase in alcohol use, the gender fissure remains: employed men consume more alcohol and have more alcohol-related problems than do employed women.

A study by Parker and colleagues (1980) showed that employed women drank more frequently than did out of work and claiming benefit women. A later study observed slightly superior rates of heavier drinking (defined in this study as the consumption of 1 or more ounces of alcohol per day) among women surrounded by full-time paid employment than among full-time homemakers (Wilsnack et al. 1986). In enhancement, drinking problems (such as driving while intoxicated, inability to remember behavior while drinking, and belligerence after drinking) occurred at difficult rates among employed women and among unemployed women who be seeking work than among full-time homemakers (Wilsnack et al. 1986). The same study found that women employed part time reported more symptoms of alcohol dependence and have significantly higher rates of drinking problems than did women who be homemakers or were employed full time.

Other variables, such as factor related to age, may play a role in the interaction between employment and drinking. Hamlett and colleagues (1989) investigated correlates of drinking among women aged 45 to 64. Overall, these researchers found that employment outside the home correlated near a greater frequency of drinking. However, results varied when different age groups be considered. In the 45-to-54 age group, women in remunerated employment drank more frequently than full-time homemakers, but in the 55-to-64 age group, full-time homemakers reported drinking more frequently than women in salaried employment.

Some studies have focused on women surrounded by high-level managerial, administrative, and professional positions. In a study of alcohol consumption rates among mannish and female manager and professionals, most women reported being pale to moderate drinkers; the proportion of heavy drinkers among these women (10.9 percent) be approximately one-half of that observed for the men, and was comparable to heavy-drinking rates observed for women in the broad population (Shore 1985). The abstention rate reported by women in high-level positions (3.4 percent) be similar to that reported by men in similar positions, and be lower than abstention rates reported in the common population of women (Shore 1985). A similar study found low abstention rates, relatively few heavy drinkers, and few denial behaviors related to drinking in a sample of professional and business women (Shore 1990).

LaRosa (1990) also have examined patterns of alcohol use by women within high-level professional positions. LaRosa's study of a select group of highly salaried women executives revealed that most (72.2 percent) of the executives were drinkers, contrasted near 45.3 percent of working women in a comparison group matched for age and education stratum. Of all women who drank, most be light drinkers (defined here study as 7 or fewer drinks per week) or moderate drinkers (8 to 24 drinks per week). Collectively, the studies by Shore (1985, 1990) and LaRosa (1990) indicate that while most women professionals drink, several are light to moderate drinkers, and few are lashing drinkers.

Because much of the research on alcohol use by women in specific occupations have focused on women in white-collar professional positions, these results may parallel other contributing variables, such as work environment and socioeconomic status or income level. Studies focusing on women employed in blue-collar and other job are needed, both to understand their drinking behaviors and to provide a more accurate weighing up of the relationship between employment and drinking.

INCREASED DRINKING: A FUNCTION OF STRESS OR ACCESSIBILITY?

To gain a better understanding of the relationship between employment and alcohol use by women, researchers enjoy attempted to discover how and why paid employment alters women's drinking pattern. One of the earliest theories was that role change (implying the acquisition of secondary tasks and responsibilities) associated with entry into employment may bring stress that leads to increased alcohol use. Another argument suggests that employment increases access to alcohol and exposure to settings in which alcohol is consumed. (See Wilsnack and Wilsnack 1992 for a review of these theories.)

Effects of Changing Roles

Concern going on for the effect of employment on women's drinking arises, in part, from the acceptance that taking a job outside of the home normally does not decrease a woman's responsibilities inwardly the home. Many women in remunerated employment dedicate time and vigour to multiple roles: in totting up to being workers, they may be homemakers, mothers, wives, volunteers, church members, students, grouping members, and so on. A number of studies enjoy examined whether women's drinking is influenced by having too oodles roles and role demands (role overload) or having roles that place competing demands on the character (role conflict).

Parker and co-workers (1980) studied the effects of role conflict on alcohol consumption, using data from a 1974 survey of masculine and female drinkers in Boston. These investigators assumed role conflict to be present in three situations: when the subject be married and employed outside the home; married and more highly educated(3); or married, employed, and more significantly educated. They found none of the three situations to be associated next to increased volume or frequency of alcohol consumption, in either men or women.

Similarly, Shore (1990) found no evidence to support the hypothesis that role conflict or role overload would increase women's drinking. In her study of business and professional women, no significant correlation be found between the reported number of major, time-consuming roles and alcohol consumption or glum consequences of alcohol use. The same study found that alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems were smaller amount frequent among those women who had children; within fact, alcohol consumption and the incidence of alcohol-related distrustful consequences decreased next to increasing numbers of children. Hammer and Vaglum (1989) also found that having children correlated beside lower levels of alcohol consumption among women employed full time.

These findings, along beside studies that suggest multiple roles may benefit, rather than threaten, women's strength and well-being (for review, see Verbrugge 1978), have lead researchers to explore alternate role-related influences. Some researchers have argued that role deprivation, defined as the deficit of meaningful or life-enriching roles, may be a more significant influence on women's drinking behavior than role conflict or role overload. Role deprivation may impose stress in a woman's life span by increasing her unstructured time, depriving her of social support, lowering her self-esteem, or producing isolation and loneliness. Any combination of such factors may influence alcohol consumption.

Wilsnack and Cheloha (1987) used information from a 1981 national survey (Wilsnack et al. 1986) to investigate drinking behaviors among women of different ages and with different roles. Among women drinkers aged 21 to 34, those who be not married and were neither full-time homemakers nor remunerated employees be most likely to report problems next to drinking. Among women aged 35 to 49, indications of problem drinking were most closely associated beside the loss of family roles, resulting when children moved out home or as a consequence of separation or divorce from a spouse. Among women aged 50 to 64, two groups had highly developed risks of problem drinking: women who were employed or students, be not married (most were divorced, separated, or widowed), and have no children at home; and women who were neither workers nor students, had no children at home, and lived near a heavy-drinking husband. Wilsnack and Cheloha reasoned that, in all age groups studied, problem drinking may be related to some type of role deprivation--either to a paucity of roles early within life or a loss of roles after that in existence.

The combination of results from the 1981 survey and those from followup studies conducted in 1986 (Wilsnack et al. 1991) provided further indications of effects of role deprivation. Circumstances found to predict problem drinking at followup included the loss of a job during the followup interval, never have been married, and proletarian employment in 1981. In tally, part-time employment during the followup spell predicted the onset of problem drinking among nonproblem drinkers (that is, women who be identified as drinkers, but not problem drinkers, in 1981).

A subsequent study based on one and the same followup data found no relationship, among nonproblem drinkers, between full-time employment (in 1981 or in 1986) and drinking pattern at followup (Wilsnack and Wilsnack 1992). In addition, problem drinkers who be employed at the time of the first study scored lower on measures of problem drinking in 1986 than problem drinkers who be not employed in 1981. However, problem drinkers who be not employed at the time of the 1981 survey, but began working for foot between 1981 and 1986, reported an increased frequency of heavy drinking episodes and more problem drinking indicators at followup. Thus, while role deprivation may contribute to problem drinking for some women, for other women the getting hold of of a new role--as a salaried employee--may not be beneficial. Other factors, such as brief or workplace characteristics (job demands, part-time versus full-time work), may interact to mitigate any potential benefits of employment and multiple roles.

To determine relationships between workplace characteristics and alcohol consumption or psychological well-being, Lennon (1987) examined background obtained from 3,464 employed men and women through the National Center for Health Statistics Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (Miller 1973; Engel et al. 1978). Among women, the average number of drinks per daytime increased slightly with increased substantive complexity of an occupation, that is to say, "the extent to which an occupation requires skill, training, and aptitude for intellectual, verbal, and statistical tasks" (Lennon 1987, p. 294). However, the psychological well-being of these women also increased with greater substantive complexity. Among men, greater substantive complexity of an occupation be associated with a end in the average number of drinks per afternoon and no change within psychological well-being.

That both drinking and psychological well-being of these women increased with greater situation complexity suggests that alcohol was uncommon to relieve psychological distress. LaRosa (1990) reached a similar conclusion near regard to drinking pattern of executive women (mentioned above). LaRosa observed that, although more executive women drank than did women in the comparison group, other denial behaviors that might be used to reduce stress (such as smoking and overeating) be less adjectives among the executives than among the members of the comparison group. In increase, executive women were somewhat more feasible to exercise, a positive, stress-reducing activity. LaRosa have suggested that executive women may perceive alcohol consumption as a "necessary social quantity of doing business" (p. 1452), rather than as a bearing to decrease stress.

Thus, the opinion that employed women use alcohol to reduce stress finds little support, and in that is little evidence to suggest that stresses represented by role overload or role conflict lead to increased drinking among employed women. Instead, increases in alcohol use may emulate increased accessibility to alcohol.

Effects of Accessibility

The accessibility hypothesis states that entry into paid employment influences women's drinking pattern by making alcohol more accessible. Employed women may have greater exposure to drinking settings and events. Increased access to alcohol may be related to on-the-job or after-work drinking, increased discretionary income, or lifestyle changes resulting from entry into salaried employment.

Hammer and Vaglum (1989) investigated the relative influences of stress and accessibility on alcohol consumption among Norwegian women. This study identified factors thought to contribute to stress (including work stress, nervy problems, and marital status) and factor thought to contribute to accessibility to alcohol (including population density, socioeconomic status, type of occupation, household income, and husband's alcohol consumption). There was no adjectives influence of work stress, nervous problems, or wedded status on alcohol intake among women in paid employment. However, alcohol use be significantly influenced by accessibility variables. Population density and the husband's drinking level be more strongly related to alcohol use than other accessibility variables.

Another study, which examined drinking patterns of women living in the metropolitan Boston nouns, found that employed women reported a greater frequency of occasions within which they drank than did women who were not employed (Parker et al. 1980). More lately, Shore and Batt (1991) asked business and professional women in the Wichita, Kansas, area how regularly, in the previous 6 months, they have been present within settings where drinking took place (regardless of whether the subjects have been drinking). Alcohol consumption and cynical consequences of alcohol use increased significantly with increased frequency of occasion in drinking settings.

While more definitive studies are needed, these reports suggest a nouns between employment and increased access to alcohol, and suggest that increased access to alcohol may be linked to change in drinking pattern among women in compensated employment.

Effects of Workplace Gender Composition

The idea that employed women will develop drinking pattern similar to those of employed men arises from the assumption that these women will be exposed to similar drinking norms and opportunity. These women also may be invited or expected to join manly colleagues when they drink. Thus, women in occupations or workplaces where on earth men predominate might be expected to have increased access to alcohol and increased alcohol consumption. Several recent investigations hold examined whether, and how, gender composition of occupation may influence women's drinking.

There are no standard methods for measuring masculinity composition in the workplace. Some studies use market research data to determine whether women or men predominate in a individual occupation or job; others use conventional experience, for example, the knowledge that women variety up the majority of people surrounded by nursing and public school law. Another method focuses on the workplace and working conditions of an individual respondent. Thus, studies examining the relationship of alcohol use to gender composition may imitate not only the ratio of males to females surrounded by a given occupation, but also the work environment, social norms, or individual characteristics of those who choose unmistaken occupations.

Hammer and Vaglum (1989) found that Norwegian women within traditionally female occupation (such as nursing, teaching, and clerical work) drank significantly smaller quantity than women in traditionally masculine occupations (such as guidance, insurance, and male-dominated industry). A study conducted in Prague, Czechoslovakia, revealed that women in male-dominated occupations drank more frequently and reported high daily average consumption than did women contained by female-dominated occupations (Kubicka et al. 1991). Using facts from a 1989 national survey of women in Finland, Haavio-Mannila (1991) grouped employed women in five category based on whether they worked next to all manly, both male and feminine, mostly female, adjectives female, or no colleagues. This investigator found that the frequency of women's drinking increased next to increasing proportions of male colleagues, an effect that remained even when childhood, socioeconomic status, and income were taken into consideration.

Work by Lennon (1987) found no evidence that sexual category composition influences drinking among women in the United States: this study observed no significant differences between the drinking patterns of women contained by traditional employment and the drinking patterns of women contained by non-traditional employment.(4)

However, another study of women in the United States have demonstrated that employment in occupation where males are contained by the majority correlates with increased alcohol consumption and problem drinking (Wilsnack and Wright 1991). These researchers also proposed various influences that might be positively or negatively associated with alcohol use among employed women, and found that the influences associated near alcohol use by women in male-dominated occupation differed from those of women in female-dominated occupation. Among women in female-dominated job, factors such as perceived social disapproval of women's drinking or intoxication, traditional feminine values (defined in expressions of the importance women attributed to individual married and having children) and conservative morality (measured by a three-part index assessing religiosity, disapproval of sexual hum between married partners, and disapproval of stocky drinking and intoxication) seemed to prevent problem drinking. Among women in male-dominated job, frequent opportunities to drink, traditional manly values (defined in terms of the stress women attributed to having others follow their front, saying what they thought, earn their own income, and being respected for the feature of their work), and unhappiness be linked beside problem drinking. Thus, differences in drinking patterns between women contained by male-dominated occupations and those contained by female-dominated occupations may result from different interactive social and psychological influences in different work contexts.

WHAT WE KNOW NOW

Current evidence indicates that little overall regulation in women's drinking pattern has occur in the concluding several decades. A closer examination of women surrounded by paid employment, however, have revealed subtle alterations. Several studies have shown a trend toward decrease abstention and increased light to moderate drinking, but little evidence of heavier or problem drinking among women who work outside the home.

The research have shown that "simple theories" (Wilsnack and Wilsnack 1992), for example, that paid employment is poisonous to women or that job stress lead to increased drinking, are inadequate to explain the drinking behavior of women in compensated employment. Theories about opportunity stress, role conflict, or role overload as factors influencing drinking enjoy found little support; in reality, some studies associate a lack of roles next to increased drinking and problem drinking. Drinking patterns of employed women come across instead to be influenced by greater accessibility to alcohol and by complex issues surrounding the gender go together of a workplace or occupation.

Early theories and predictions about the drinking behavior of women in rewarded employment may have be based more on reaction to societal changes contained by women's roles and responsibilities than on any documented increase in alcohol abuse or related threats to women's robustness (Fillmore 1984). More sophisticated theories are now individual developed that deal beside the complex ways in which drinking norm, values, accessibility, stress, age, job type, and other factor may combine to influence alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems in women. Areas that remain to be addressed include the drinking pattern and drinking problems of women in jobs excluding white-collar professional positions, and the possible relationship between paid employment, alcohol use, and rising highway loss and injury rates among women. Continued work may provide greater understanding of the relationship between the workplace and alcohol consumption and may contribute to the prevention of alcohol problems among women and men.

(1) One ounce of alcohol is roughly equivalent to two alcoholic beverages.

(2) In this study, brawny, frequent drinking described individuals who consumed alcohol nearly every day or on a daily basis, or who consumed more than five drinks on the same instant (Fillmore 1984).

(3) In testing their hypothesis, the authors assumed that increasing stratum of education would correlate near increasing role conflict.

(4) In this study, women in nontraditional employment were defined, using Census Bureau background on the gender composition of available job titles, as those in occupation composed of at least 60 percent men (Lennon 1987).