The relationship among alcohol use, career indecision, and work role salience

This study investigated the relationship of alcohol use with career indecision and work role salience in a college population. In addition, gender differences were examined regarding career indecision, career certainty, alcohol use, grade point average, and degree of religiosity. Three hundred and nine students, ranging in academic status from freshmen to seniors, with the mean age of 18 years old, participated in this study. Students were administered the Career Decision Scale (Osipow, Carney, Winer, Yanico, & Koschier, 1976), the Work Role Salience Scale (Greenhaus, 1973), and a demographics questionnaire and alcohol use questionnaire. A Pearson correlational coefficient matrix was generated for all variables for the total sample and for each gender separately to determine relationships among variables to test ttiree hypotheses that predicted a positive relationship between alcohol use and career indecisbn, a positive relationship between career certainty and work role salience, and a negative relationship between alcohol use and work role salience. The fourth hypothesis predicted gender differences in career certainty and in negative academic consequences due to drinking. These were tested by comparing the mean scores on career certainty, and the mean scores on negative academic consequences due to drinking, between genders using the t-test statistic.

The data from the sample as a whole provided support for the first and second hypotheses, no support for the third hypothesis, and partial support for the fourth hypothesis. Post-hoc analyses provided additional insights into the relationships among the variables of interest.