Work Environment and Workers’ Smoking: The Impact of Affect and Social Support Among Korean Workers

Abstract

The main goal of this study is to investigate the causal pathways of work environment and smoking habits. We also tested whether socio-psychic variables influence this pathway. By bridging the affective events theory framework, we compose two categories of work environment according to the affective events theory model: work features and emotional labor. Using the Korean Working Conditions Survey (N = 50,032), we analyzed the mediating effects after inputting negative affect, the interaction effects of social support, to predict smoking behaviors. The results reveal a direct relationship between lower job autonomy and smoking due to negative sentiments and the infringement of working-time flexibility. Lower levels of social support also impacted smoking in interactions with lowjob autonomy. Therefore, we suggest that work environment, and primarily work features, induces stress-related adverse affects and promotes smoking, while an environment of social support can reduce smoking.