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. 2012 Jun;65(6):705-728.
doi: 10.1177/0018726711435250.

Workforce Disengagement Stressors and Retiree Alcohol Misuse: The Mediating Effects of Sleep Problems and the Moderating Effects of Gender

Elena Belogolovsky  1 , Peter Bamberger  2 , Samuel Bacharach  3
Affiliations

Workforce Disengagement Stressors and Retiree Alcohol Misuse: The Mediating Effects of Sleep Problems and the Moderating Effects of Gender

Elena Belogolovsky et al. Hum Relat. 2012 Jun.

Abstract

We generate and test a moderated mediation model of the effects of two retirement-related stressors (namely, financial and marital) on the severity of alcohol misuse among retirees. We posit that in addition to using alcohol to cope with stressors in retirement, alcohol may also be used to self-medicate the secondary, sleep-related effects of such stressors, and that gender serves as a key boundary condition, moderating the impact of such stressors on sleep-related problems, and of sleep-related problems on alcohol misuse. Using longitudinal data collected from a sample of 292 retirees, our findings generally support this model, suggesting that both stressors are associated with the severity of alcohol misuse among male retirees. Moreover, our findings demonstrate that -- for male retirees -- the effect of both stressors on the severity of alcohol misuse is to a large extent secondary to the stressors themselves, mediated by the sleep-related problems they may generate.

Keywords: alcohol misuse; retirement; sleep-related problems; stressors.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual Model
Figure 2
Figure 2
Moderation of the Effect of (centered) Financial Stressors in Retirement at T1 (X) on Sleep-Related Problems T2 (M)
Figure 3
Figure 3
Moderation of the Effect of (centered) Sleep-Related Problems T2 (M) on Severity of Alcohol Misuse at T3 (Y).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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