Premium
Personality Characteristics of Sisters and Spouses of Male Alcoholics
Author(s) -
Hill Shirley Y.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-0277.1993.tb00831.x
Subject(s) - assortative mating , spouse , psychology , personality , closeness , minnesota multiphasic personality inventory , similarity (geometry) , proband , harm avoidance , developmental psychology , social psychology , big five personality traits , clinical psychology , demography , mating , genetics , biology , mathematical analysis , mathematics , artificial intelligence , sociology , anthropology , computer science , gene , image (mathematics) , mutation
Sisters of alcoholics from high‐density multigenerational families were assessed to determine personality characteristics. Spousal similarity was evaluated in proband/spouse pairs and in spouse pairs from the parental generation, allowing for comparisons of selection versus contagion as explanations for this similarity. Sisters were found to differ from control women with respect to Alienation and Social Closeness from the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire, and Scale 6 (Paranoia) from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Only spouses from the parental generation were similar on Alienation, suggesting that exposure over time (contagion) leads to greater similarity in parents from High‐Risk families. Modest correlations in spouse pairs from both generations suggest that assortative mating for Social Closeness occurs among the parents of these individuals from High‐Risk families, and further suggest that a diminished level of Social Closeness for sisters of alcoholics may be mediated in part by additive genetic variance. It is concluded that assortative mating for particular traits may contribute to increased risk for alcoholism. Also, failure to mate assortatively for other traits (e.g., Traditionalism, Harm Avoidance) may also contribute to increased rates in High‐Risk families.