Title : Gender, mental health, and alcohol use: Exploring precarious work as an intervening factor
Abstract:
Gender based mental health disparities are well documented in the literature. For example, women are more likely to experience higher rates of anxiety or depression, and men are more likely to be diagnosed with substance use disorders. Therefore, identifying mediators between gender and mental health is a key focus for research and intervention, but scholars have underexamined work-related factors as explanatory mechanisms of this relation. A key work-related factor is precarious work, which is unstable and uncertain employment with limited worker power. Moreover, while precarious work is increasing in general, women are currently and have historically been disproportionately precariously employed. Therefore, informed by psychology of working theory and the work precarity framework, the goal of the present study was to determine whether precarious work mediated the relation between gender and psychological distress. We also examined whether alcohol use moderated this mediation. To test this model, we recruited 887 working adults and found that precarious work significantly mediated the relation between gender and psychological distress. We also found that alcohol moderated the mediation, such that those with higher rates of alcohol use had a stronger relation between precarious work and psychological distress. The results provide evidence that precarious work can act as a social and structural determinant of health, particularly for women, and that high alcohol use might be an exacerbating factor in this process. This study also highlights how work-related stressors can explain gender-related differences in health, which emphasizes the need for systemic intervention and more research in this area.
Keywords: gender; precarious work, mental health, alcohol, heath disparities
Audience Take Away Notes:
- This poster presentation will provide the audience with a unique perspective that considers the context of unstable, insecure work as a possible explanation or higher prevalence rates of poor mental health for women. It further examines the exacerbating effect of increased alcohol use on the stress associated with precarious work and resultant psychological distress.
- For clinicians who are working with clients navigating substance use disorders, this information will help by inviting them to consider the context of their work as possible complications in the recovery process.
- This research could help faculty members start thinking meaningfully about the prevalence of precarious work and how it might serve as a structural determinant of health, especially in the context of problematic alcohol use. Further, by raising these implications to their students, faculty can help develop awareness of this issue broadly, which is needed to address the structural, systemic nature of occupational inequity.
- This research promotes health for women, a population that is overrepresented in precarious jobs, has a higher prevalence of psychological distress, and is vulnerable to compounding identity-related stressors and unhealthy coping behaviors such as increased alcohol use.
