The process of recovery from alcoholism: III. Comparing functioning in families of alcoholics and matched control families.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Prospective follow-up study comparing cohorts of recovered and relapsed patients against matched community controls.
PubMed 6727369 · doi:10.15288/jsa.1984.45.111
What was done
The study assessed family functioning 2 years after patients completed residential alcoholism treatment. Researchers compared three groups: families of recovered patients (N = 54), families of relapsed patients (N = 51), and sociodemographically matched community control families (N = 105). Outcomes evaluated across groups included role functioning (distribution of household tasks), family environment (cohesion, expressiveness, conflict, recreational orientation), and husband-wife congruence.
What was found
Families of recovered alcoholic patients exhibited functioning comparable to matched community controls across the measured indices. In contrast, families of relapsed patients showed less cohesion, expressiveness, recreational orientation, and lower agreement regarding their family environment compared to both recovered and control families. Relapsed families also reported more arguments than recovered families and displayed altered role functioning, characterized by nonalcoholic spouses performing more household tasks while alcoholic partners performed fewer. Family functioning was also modulated by the alcoholic partner's adaptation, life stressors, and the spouse's dysfunction level. No exact numerical values or effect sizes were reported in the abstract.
Why it matters
The findings demonstrate that successful recovery from alcoholism is associated with a normalization of overall family functioning and marital dynamics to levels typical of non-alcoholic community families, whereas ongoing relapse perpetuates family dysfunction and role imbalances.
Limits
The abstract reports no numerical statistics, p-values, or effect sizes. Assessment was restricted to heterosexual married couples who completed residential treatment, limiting generalizability to other family structures or untreated populations. Pre-treatment baseline family functioning was not described, precluding causal determination of whether recovery normalized family function or pre-existing family stability facilitated recovery.
Cited by
- supports A study by Ruth Cronkite found that when men with alcoholism became sober, their wives, assessed a year later, exhibited functioning and psychological traits indistinguishable from women married to men who had never had alcoholism.