Work stress, overcommitment personality and alcohol consumption based on the Effort–Reward Imbalance model: A population–based cohort study

Work stress has been extensively supported to predict health outcomes like health behaviors. Evidence has linked work stress and personality independently to health, but the interrelationships between work stress and personality and their joint effects on health might deserve more attention in research. This study attempts to integrate recent developments in psychological research (diverse roles of personality in stress processes) into the well–established Effort–Reward Imbalance (ERI) model for work stress. Based on the ERI model, this population–based cohort study aims to investigate the relationships between work stress, personality and alcohol consumption; it particularly focuses on potential roles of overcommitment (OC) personality in ERI–drinking relations, including modifying, antecedent, mediator or direct effects. This two–wave cohort study was conducted in population samples of 3782 men and 3731 women (aged 45–69 years) from Czech Republic, Poland and Russia. Alcohol consumption was assessed by three drinking outcomes: binge drinking, heavy drinking and problem drinking. To assess modifying effect of OC in ERI–drinking relations, logistic regression was used. To assess antecedent or mediator role of OC in ERI–drinking relations, path analysis with the autoregressive and cross–lagged model was conducted. The results showed that OC had no significantly modifying effect in ERI–drinking relations. OC and ERI might have bidirectional relationships in the average follow–up period of 3.5 years; the effect of OC on ERI was remarkably stronger than the reversed causation. Antecedent role of OC in ERI–drinking relationship was significant, but mediator role of OC was not. In conclusion, our findings imply that “antecedent role” of OC in ERI–drinking relations is significant and promising as a potential target for individual intervention; future interventions are suggested to identify and target potential cognitive–behavioral mechanisms via which personality might influence work stress and subsequently health behaviors.