The Relationship Between Workplace Aggression and Alcohol Use: A National Survey

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the relationship between alcohol use and workplace aggression. A nationally representative sample of civilian employees (N = 300) was interviewed with psychometrically sound measures of workplace aggression and alcohol use frequency. It was hypothesized that increased alcohol use would be associated with victimization from and perpetration of workplace aggression during the year before assessment and during the respondents' lifetimes. For the I-year time period prior to assessment, increased days of any drinking were significantly associated with increased verbal victimization from and verbal perpetration of workplace aggression. In addition, increased days of heavy drinking (i.e., six ounces or more of alcohol per day for men and four ounces or more of alcohol per day for women) were associated with increased verbal victimization from and verbal perpetration of workplace aggression. For the I-year time period prior to assessment, drinking was also found to be associated with physical workplace aggression. Increased days of any drinking were significantly associated with increased physical victimization from and physical perpetration of workplace aggression. In addition, increased days of heavy drinking were associated with increased physical victimization from and physical perpetration of workplace aggression. For respondents' lifetimes, neither increased days of any drinking nor heavy drinking during the year before assessment were significantly associated with increased likelihood of verbal victimization from workplace aggression. Drinking was associated with an increased likelihood of verbal perpetration of workplace aggression. However, only increased days of heavy drinking were significant in this model; days of any drinking were not significant. In contrast, physical victimization from workplace aggression was significantly associated with increased days of any drinking, but not increased days of heavy drinking. The likelihood of physical perpetration of workplace aggression was associated with both increased days of any drinking and heavy drinking. Workplace implications of the link between alcohol use and aggression found in this study are explored.