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Job Insecurity and Substance Use in the United States: Stress, Strain, and the Gendering of Precarious Employment

Research in the Sociology of Work

ISBN: 978-1-78635-406-8, eISBN: 978-1-78635-405-1

Publication date: 19 August 2016

Abstract

Research on the social determinants of health demonstrates that workers who feel insecure in their jobs suffer poorer health as a result. However, relatively few studies have examined the relationship between job insecurity and illegal substance use, which is closely related to health. In this study, we develop a theoretical model focusing on two intervening mechanisms: health and life satisfaction. Additionally, we examine differences in this relationship between women and men. We test this model using logistic regression models of substance use for women and men based on longitudinal data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States. The results indicate that job insecurity is associated with a significantly higher probability of illegal substance use among women but not men. We interpret this as further evidence of the gendering of precarious employment. This relationship is not channeled through health or life satisfaction, but there is evidence that job insecurity has a stronger association with illegal substance use for women with poorer overall health.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

The authors presented a previous version of this paper at the 2013 meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society in Chicago, IL. The authors thank Jeff Dixon for his comments on a previous draft.

Citation

Fullerton, A.S., Long, M.A. and Anderson, K.F. (2016), "Job Insecurity and Substance Use in the United States: Stress, Strain, and the Gendering of Precarious Employment", Research in the Sociology of Work (Research in the Sociology of Work, Vol. 29), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 241-271. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0277-283320160000029026

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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