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Family Functioning of Male Alcoholics and Their Female Partners during Periods of Drinking and Abstinence
Author(s) -
LIEPMAN MICHAEL R.,
NIRENBERG TED D.,
DOOLITTLE RICHARD H.,
BEGIN ANN M.,
BROFFMAN THOMAS E.,
BABICH MARK E.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
family process
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.011
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1545-5300
pISSN - 0014-7370
DOI - 10.1111/j.1545-5300.1989.00239.x
Subject(s) - abstinence , psychology , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , psychiatry
Family functioning of 20 alcoholic male veterans and their female partners was assessed in relation to drinking (wet) and abstinent (dry) intervals. Repeated measures analyses performed on the McMaster Family Assessment Device (FAD) indicated that on all 7 scales of the FAD, alcoholics and their mates perceived family functioning to be better during dry than wet periods. In contrast to their alcoholic mates, female partners gave healthier ratings to all FAD scales except Roles in the dry condition and Affective Involvement in the wet condition. According to published cutoff scores for healthy and unhealthy family functioning, alcoholics as a group viewed their wet and dry family functioning as unhealthy, although the female group regarded the family's dry Problem Solving and Behavioral Control as healthy. These findings suggest that the family functioning of alcohol‐involved couples is biphasic, oscillating between drinking and abstinent periods.