Occupational Stress and Psychoactive Substance Use: A Study of Cable Factory Workers in Morocco

Work-related stress has become an alarming reality that continues to intensify over the past decades. The pressure exerted by the work environment demands the utilization of defensive and coping strategies to deal with it. Our study aims to explore the relationship between professional stress factors, stress symptoms, and the consumption of psychoactive substances as a defensive and coping strategy deployed to address psychological distress at work. A qualitative and quantitative study was conducted with a sample of 405 employees from a wiring manufacturing. The main professional stress factors identified were concentration, overload, long working hours, and monotony, which showed a significant correlation with PAS consumption. Women were found to be more affected by stress and tended to consume more sedatives. Among the respondents, 21.98% reported PAS consumption, with tobacco being the most commonly used (M = 2.66), followed by alcohol (M = 1.94), cannabis (M = 1.79), and sedatives (M = 1.45). There was a significant positive correlation between PAS consumption and stress symptoms {tobacco (r = 0.232*), alcohol (r = 0.305**), cannabis (r = 0.389**)}.