Family Functioning of Male Alcoholics and Their Female Partners during Periods of Drinking and Abstinence

Abstract

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.

The Evaluation of Family Functioning by the Family Assessment Device: A Systematic Review of Studies in Adult Clinical Populations

“…Among personality measures, FAD scores were associated with neuroticism (Miller et al., ) and conscientiousness (Miller et al., ) in depressed patients. In several psychiatric samples, FAD pathological scores also showed a relation with comorbidity with personality disorders (Miller et al., ), mania (Uebelacker et al., ), symptom severity and frequency (Evans, McHugh, Hopwood, & Watts, ; Febres, Rossi, Gaudiano, & Miller, ; Liepman et al., ; Sheets & Miller, ; Waller, ), and lower psychosocial functioning (Guada, Hoe, Floyd, Barbour, & Brekke, ). Poorer scores on the FAD also predicted greater physical violence victimization by partner in both male and female suicidal inpatients, even after controlling for alcohol use and demographic characteristics (Heru, Stuart, Rainey, Eyre, & Recupero, ).…”

“…Among the 20 studies examining the associations between FAD and patients' characteristics and clinical outcomes in psychiatric settings, in nine studies the questionnaire has been administered only to patients (Beevers et al, 2007;Evans et al, 2009;Febres et al, 2011;McKay et al, 1992McKay et al, , 1993Murphy & Bentall, 1999;Uebelacker et al, 2006;Waller, 1994bWaller, , 1997 and in eleven studies to both patients and at least one family member (Evans et al, 2003(Evans et al, , 2010Guada et al, 2012;Keitner et al, 1987aKeitner et al, , 1992Keitner et al, , 1995Keitner et al, , 1997Liepman et al, 1989;Miller et al, 1992Miller et al, , 2000Sheets & Miller, 2010).…”

Family of Origin and Current Relationship Influences on Codependency

“…The significantly lower level of intimacy reported in the clinical group is consistent with previous reports in which alcoholics and their spouses were portrayed as using drinking to facilitate intimacy. The absence of alcohol “may leave the family depressed [and] emotionally impoverished… reflect[ing] the positive, stabilizing function of the alcohol for the family system despite the ‘costs’ to individual members” (Liepman et al, 1989, p. 241).…”

Family Climate and Expressed Emotion in the Course of Alcoholism

“…Another limitation in our study is that the CFI was performed only at the start of the study and not at later points of time. It has been suggested by Liepman and colleagues (1989) and Nirenberg et al (1990) that tests involving chemically dependent families be done in reference to the state (that is, sober vs. drinking) in order to obtain accurate assessments of state‐dependent shifts in behavior. In the CFI, key relatives in our study did address the drinking situation: how they react and how they felt about it.…”