Gender differences on mental health, work-family conflicts and alcohol use in response to abusive supervision

Abstract

This study aimed to examine gender effects on the relations between abusive supervision and mental health issues, work-family conflicts, as well as the risk of alcohol use. A subset of the SALVEO data (N = 2,058) was used in this paper to conduct multilevel regression analysis, controlling for both work and non-work related determinants. Results showed that abusive supervision was positively related to psychological distress and work-family conflicts, but not the risk of alcohol use. There were no gender differences found in our study, except for psychological distress. Comparing to men, abusive supervision had a stronger negative effect on women’s psychological distress. Both work and non-work determinants had significant contributions to mental health issues, work-family conflicts, as well as the risk of alcohol abuse. This study illustrated the importance of using multilevel approach to examine the negative impact of abusive supervision.