Studies of job-based influences on employees' drinking have focused on the effects of structural and stress-producing features of jobs on alcohol consumption. Unexplored is the possibility of mediation of job-to-drinking effects via levels of job satisfaction. Using data from a large national probability sample of full-time workers, the current study tests a model that incorporates worker satisfaction as a mediating variable. Our analyses reveal that a complex interplay of stressors, rewards, and work-related affect influence employees' problematic drinking behaviors. Further, satisfied workers are significantly less likely to drink problematically. This lends support to the “spillover” model of work effects, namely, that work has important effects on the adjustment and behavior of workers in nonwork settings.
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