Workplace harassment and the self-medication of distress: a conceptual model and case illustrations

Richman, Judith A.; Rospenda, Kathleen M.; Nawyn, Stephanie J.; Flaherty, Joseph A.

doi:10.1177/009145099702400109

Cited by 23 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Chronic stressors have more deleterious effects on health and well-being (Avison & Turner, 1988). The persistence of unsolved issues contributes to higher levels of distress (Wheaton, 1997), and also brings about co-occurring problems that perpetuate the nature and severity of the stressor experienced (e.g., Richman at al., 1997). However, the extent to which the pattern of harassment over time conditions responses to it has been largely understudied due to a lack of longitudinal research.…”

Section: The Patterning Of Workplace Harassmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast to most studies which focus on task and role-related strains experienced at work (e.g., Larsson & Setterlind, 1990), this study centers on interpersonal workplace conflict involving sexual harassment and generalized workplace harassment. Both forms of workplace harassment have been linked to adverse mental health and job outcomes (Fitzgerald, Drasgow, Hulin, Gelfand, & Magley, 1997;Richman, Rospenda, Nawyn, & Flaherty, 1997;Rospenda, 1998) and are prevalent across occupational and social groups (e.g., Richman et al, 1999). However, the extent to which targets use professional services in response to workplace harassment and the types of services used have received limited attention (the term 'target' is preferred to 'victim' as the former term is felt to be more empowering for individuals because it allocates responsibility for the offensive behaviors to the perpetrator).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Workplace harassment patterning, gender, and utilization of professional services: Findings from a US national study

Shannon

Rospenda

Richman

2007

Social Science & Medicine

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This study constitutes the first national longitudinal survey to address the relationship between workplace harassment and service utilization. We examine how patterns of sexual harassment and generalized workplace harassment are linked to utilization of mental health, health, legal, spiritual, and work-related services, and whether and how gender influences these relationships. Data derive from a random digit dial telephone survey with a continental U.S. sample of employed adults. Eligibility criteria were being 18 years of age or over, and being employed at least 20 hours per week at some time in the 12 months prior to the wave 1 survey. Out of 4,116 households with eligible individuals, 2,151 agreed to participate at wave 1. 1,418 participated at wave 2, thus, the overall response rate was 34.5%. We show that the patterning of workplace harassment over two time points (chronic, remission, onset, never harassed) is associated with the use of different types of services. Gender partially moderated the relationship between workplace harassment and services.

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Section: The Patterning Of Workplace Harassmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Workplace harassment patterning, gender, and utilization of professional services: Findings from a US national study

Shannon

Rospenda

Richman

2007

Social Science & Medicine

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“…We examined how such strains infl uence psychological distress and alcoholrelated outcomes, applying a tension-reduction or selfmedication model of drinking. This perspective maintains that alcohol is often used to cope with psychological distress, as well as the stressful life experiences that elicit distress (Richman et al, 1997(Richman et al, , 2002Steele and Josephs, 1990).Additionally, because men are consistently found to drink more than women and experience more alcohol-related problems (Dohrenwend and Dohrenwend, 1976;Hawkins et al, 1997;Horwitz and White, 1987) and because the associations among social stress, psychological distress, and drinking appear to vary by gender (Kessler and McLeod, 1984;Peirce et al, 1994;Richman et al, 2002;Wethington et al, 1987), we examined whether women and men differ systematically in the extent to which economy-related stress A CCORDING TO MANY SOURCES, the most serious economic crisis in the United States since the Great Depression occurred between December 2007 and June 2009 (Aruoba and Diebold, 2010;Cochrane, 2011;Treas, 2010). This crisis-commonly referred to as the Great Recessionhas had persisting negative effects, ranging from job loss and less desirable working conditions to home loss, the loss of retirement savings, fewer health care choices, and social isolation (Richman et al, 2012).…”

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confidence: 99%

Sex Differences in Mediating and Moderating Processes Linking Economic Stressors, Psychological Distress, and Drinking

Brown

Richman

2012

J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs

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ABSTRACT. Objective: Given the recent downturn in the U.S. economy, we considered in this study the processes linking economic stressors, psychological distress, and two alcohol-related outcomes (past-month drinking and problematic drinking). Method: Data were drawn from a mail survey of a national sample of 663 respondents. Structural equation modeling was used to assess whether psychological distress mediates the associations between economic stressors and the alcohol-related outcomes considered and whether these associations varied by gender. Results: Controlling for correlations among the outcomes and the effects of the sociodemographic control variables, psychological distress was found to partly explain the association between economic stressors and problematic drinking. The mediating effects on problematic drinking were signifi cantly greater for men than women. Conclusions: The fi ndings demonstrate the utility of considering interrelationships among alcohol-related outcomes and, in this context, reveal the circumstances in which gender matters most for understanding the associations among economy-related stressors, psychological distress, and drinking. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 73, 811-819, 2012) Received: January 17, 2012. Revision: May 17, 2012. This research was funded by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) grant R01AA017202 to Judith A. Richman. The article's contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the offi cial views of NIAAA.*Correspondence may be sent to Robyn Lewis Brown at DePaul University, Department of Sociology, 990 West Fullerton Ave., Suite 1100, Chicago, IL 60614, or via email at: rbrown50@depaul.edu. economic circumstances and their consequences. This is consistent with the tendency of stress research, more generally, to focus on individual-level stressors and overlook potential linkages between broader social forces and personal hardship (Galea, 2007;Richman et al., 2008; Turner and Lloyd, 2005).Addressing this limitation, the present study applies a broader defi nition of economy-related strain that includes diminished quality of and compensation from employment (e.g., decreased hours, furloughs, lack of merit raises, increased responsibilities at work resulting from the layoffs of other workers, and not obtaining jobs congruent with one's education and skill level), home ownership problems and undesirable living conditions, lack of access to or inability to afford health care, social role constraints, unemployment, and underemployment. We examined how such strains infl uence psychological distress and alcoholrelated outcomes, applying a tension-reduction or selfmedication model of drinking. This perspective maintains that alcohol is often used to cope with psychological distress, as well as the stressful life experiences that elicit distress (Richman et al., 1997(Richman et al., , 2002Steele and Josephs, 1990).Additionally, because men are consistently found to drink more than women and experience more alcohol-...

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“…With respect to the first question (Hypothesis 1), this examination provides strong support for a tension-reduction model (Brown et al, 2014;Richman et al, 1997Richman et al, , 2002Steele & Josephs, 1990) for understanding the association between physical health and alcohol-related outcomes by demonstrating that depressive symptoms substantially mediate the association between functional limitation and problematic drinking over the 3-year study period. Moreover, this examination extends previous applications of this tensionreduction framework to the experience of pain, illustrating that the connection between bodily pain and problematic drinking substantially derives from the linkage between pain and depressive symptoms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…Tension-reduction models of drinking maintain that alcohol is used as a form of self-medication to reduce the negative effects of various forms of stressor exposure (Brown et al, 2014;Richman et al, 1997Richman et al, , 2002Steele & Josephs, 1990). Psychological distress is thought to influence alcohol use partly because alcohol can reduce or alleviate feelings of tension or distress brought about by stressor exposure (Baumeister et al, 1994;Conger, 1956;Hull & Young, 1983;Hull et al, 1986).…”

Section: Drinking As a Tension-reduction Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional Limitation, Pain, and Alcohol Use: Exploring Gender Differences in the Mediating Role of Depressive Symptoms

Brown

2015

J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs

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ABSTRACT. Objective: This study considered the processes linking functional limitation and pain with depressive symptoms and two alcohol-related outcomes (past-month drinking and problematic drinking) over a 3-year period. Method: Data were drawn from a two-wave Miami-Dade County community study of people with physical disabilities (N = 559). Structural equation modeling was used to assess whether depressive symptoms mediated the associations among functional limitation, bodily pain, and the alcohol-related outcomes considered, and whether these associations were moderated by gender. Results: When the effects of the sociodemographic control variables were controlled for, depressive symptoms partly explained the effects of Wave 1 functional limitation and bodily pain on problematic drinking at Wave 2. The mediating effects of depressive symptoms on problematic drinking were significantly greater for men than for women. Conclusions: The findings demonstrate clear linkages between two physical health indicators, depressive symptoms and drinking, and highlight the circumstances in which gender matters most for understanding these associations. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 76, 809-817, 2015)

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Workplace harassment and the self-medication of distress: a conceptual model and case illustrations

Cited by 23 publications

References 29 publications

Workplace harassment patterning, gender, and utilization of professional services: Findings from a US national study

Workplace harassment patterning, gender, and utilization of professional services: Findings from a US national study

Sex Differences in Mediating and Moderating Processes Linking Economic Stressors, Psychological Distress, and Drinking

Functional Limitation, Pain, and Alcohol Use: Exploring Gender Differences in the Mediating Role of Depressive Symptoms

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