Coping strategies and family functioning in alcohol dependants

Pages: 1145-1149
Divya T. Nambiar (Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, IIMK)
Tilottama Mukherjee (Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata)

Alcohol addiction, a chronic relapsing disorder, is a fast growing public health problem in India that contributes to the destruction of individuals, families and communities. The main objective of the present study was to determine whether there is any significant difference between alcohol dependants and control group with respect to domains of coping strategies and family functioning. The sampling method employed was purpose sampling. The alcohol dependant group consists of 20 male individuals who have a history of substance related disorders and are presently under treatment in alcohol de-addiction center and control group consists of male individuals who do not have any history of substance related disorders. Both groups were assessed on certain psychological variables such as coping strategies and family functioning by applying standardized questionnaires. To find out the significant difference between two groups Mann-Whitney U test has been done. Result indicates that as far as the domains of coping strategies are concerned, alcohol dependant group scored lower on problem focused coping and social support seeking coping strategies and higher on emotion focused coping when compared to control group. With regard to family functioning, Alcohol dependant group again had a trend of gaining higher scores when compared to control group on over all family functioning and the various sub domains, like problem solving, roles, communication, affective responses, affective involvement, behavior control and general functioning. Here higher scores indicate greater pathology in the family functioning in the alcohol dependant group than control group.