Employee Alcohol Use: Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the General Work-Stress Paradigm

Abstract

This study examines the validity of the general work-stress paradigm as put forth by Frone (1999) for use in studies on alcohol and the workplace. Frone proposed that work alienation be subsumed along with work stress under a general work-stress paradigm to study relationships between work environment and employee alcohol use. Second-order confirmatory factor analysis was applied to test the hypothesis that a general work-stress model would capture several factors of work stress including work alienation. Evidence of the validity of the general work-stress paradigm was provided by a final model in which scale items with low factor loadings were removed.

KEYWORDS:

• alcohol drinking patterns
• factor analysis
• personnel
• stress
• work

This study was supported by the Chancellor's Golda Meir Scholarship, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. The authors also would like to thank Dawn Dent for her editorial assistance.