Hazardous alcohol use among South Korean police officers: Examining predictions from general strain theory

Agnew's (1985, 1992) general strain theory (GST) had earned a wide array of empirical support in research on crime and delinquency. Yet, there has been limited at-tempt to apply GST's framework to unique samples such as police officers. The present study explores the generalizability of GST to hazardous alcohol use using a sample of 570 South Korean male police officers. OLS, binary logistic, and ordinal logistic regression analyses produced evidence that partially supports the key propositions of GST. These findings are explained in the context of South Korean drinking culture. Research implications for future researchers are also discussed. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.