What Promotes Wisdom in 12-Step Recovery?

DiGangi, Julia A.; Majer, John M.; Mendoza, Leslie; Droege, Jocelyn R.; Jason, Leonard A.; Contreras, Richard

doi:10.1080/1556035x.2013.836869

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Among old-timers, the number of Al-Anon meetings attended over the 6-month study period was not associated with outcomes, but number of meetings was positively associated with Al-Anon social processes, which were associated with better outcomes. Similarly, individuals in recovery who reported particular social experiences as part of mutual help (e.g., identifying as a member of a specific group) had higher levels of wisdom (operationalized in part as having positive self-esteem, being kind, and demonstrating concern for others); however, meeting attendance was not related to wisdom (DiGangi et al, 2014). Possibly, as duration of Al-Anon participation lengthens, aspects of membership taking place outside of meetings, such as working on the steps, or serving as a group representative, gain in importance in the maintenance of positive outcomes.…”

Section: Number Of Meetings and Outcomes Among Newcomers And Old-timersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social processes explaining the benefits of Al-Anon participation.

Timko¹,

Halvorson²,

Kong³

et al. 2015

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors

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This study examined social processes of support, goal direction, provision of role models, and involvement in rewarding activities to explain benefits of participating in Al-Anon, a 12-step mutual-help program for people concerned about another person’s substance use. Newcomers to Al-Anon were studied at baseline and 6 months later, when they were identified as having sustained attendance or dropped out. Among newcomers, and among established Al-Anon members (“oldtimers”), we also used number of Al-Anon meetings attended during follow-up to indicate extent of participation. Social processes significantly mediated between newcomers’ attendance status as sustained (versus dropped out) and outcomes of Al-Anon in the domains of life context (e.g., better quality of life, better able to handle problems due to the drinker), improved positive symptoms (more self-esteem, more hopeful), and decreased negative symptoms (e.g., less abuse, less depressed). Social processes also significantly mediated between newcomers’ number of meetings and outcomes. However, among oldtimers, Al-Anon attendance was not associated with outcomes, so the potential mediating role of social processes could not be examined, but social processes were associated with outcomes. Findings add to the growing body of work identifying mechanisms by which 12-step groups are effective, by showing that bonding, goal direction, and access to peers in recovery and rewarding pursuits help to explain associations between sustained Al-Anon participation among newcomers and improvements on key concerns of Al-Anon attendees. Al-Anon is free of charge and widely available, making it a potentially cost-effective public health resource in helping to alleviate negative consequences of concern about another’s addiction.

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Section: Number Of Meetings and Outcomes Among Newcomers And Old-timersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social processes explaining the benefits of Al-Anon participation.

Timko¹,

Halvorson²,

Kong³

et al. 2015

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In a similar vein, different factors were identified across those studies using the FVS (potentially due to a change in the prompt question from thinking about characteristics of wise people to characteristics of the self). Nonetheless, where an overall alpha coefficient was supplied, the range was from 0.68 to 0.93 (DiGangi et al, 2014;Jason et al, 2001). The factors identified as belonging to the broad domains of spirituality, intelligence, and nature were established in three out of the four included studies, with alpha coefficients varying from poor to good.…”

Section: Convergent Validity Across the Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Exploration of Wisdom in Mid- to Older-Aged Adults: An Australian Context

Mitchell¹

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Wisdom is considered a multifaceted construct that has proven difficult to define, and within the psychological literature, wisdom has only been the focus of scientific study for the past 40 years, despite its long history within philosophy and society more generally. Research to date has focused on three core areas of study: defining wisdom; measuring wisdom; and developing wisdom.In this thesis, the focus is on the former two areas of study.The trend to date in terms of defining wisdom has been to delineate between Western and Eastern conceptualisations of wisdom in order to distinguish between the ways in which those two broad groups of people define wisdom. A further, more recent, development in the literature has been to begin explorations as to the potential for a culturally inclusive conceptualisation of wisdom.In terms of its assessment, theorists have measured wisdom in a variety of ways, with the two main methodologies being via performance-based measures (primarily achieved via the use of vignettes) and self-report measures. While each have proven reliability and validity, the former tends to require lengthy procedures and training, while the latter is plagued by concerns around how well an individual can rate their own 'level' of wisdom (Staudinger & Glück, 2011).The present research explored the construct of wisdom utilising Australian adult participants aged 50 years and over. Offering an interesting mix of cultures, Australia's multicultural population was seen as presenting the potential to build on the conceptualisation of wisdom research to date beyond the broad delineations of Western versus Eastern cultures. A further aim was to investigate a new measure of wisdom, drawing on the empirical literature to date as to what might make for a 'good' wisdom measure.Study 1 was a quantitative study looking at what Australians identify as the key defining qualities of a wise person. Using the Self-Construal Scale (Singelis, 1994) to distinguish between those identifying with an independent versus an interdependent value system, it was hypothesised that the former group would more closely match with Western definitions of wisdom, while the latter would more closely match with Eastern definitions. The results showed that regardless of selfidentified cultural background, participants rating highly in terms of an independent self-construal were more likely to rate wisdom descriptors associated with knowledge and intelligence highly.Those rating highly in terms of an interdependent self-construal tended to rate affective descriptors of wisdom more highly. In each case, these findings were consistent with research to date focusing on Western-and Eastern-based definitions of wisdom, respectively.Study 2 was a qualitative study that asked participants, in an open-ended way, to describe a wise person. The data was then matched to the work of Bangen, Meeks, and Jeste (2013) in order to see how well the responses of the participants aligned with the subcomponents of wisdom derived (iii) from their review ...

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Practice, Advocacy, and Outreach: Perspectives on Addiction Services

October-Edun

2018

New Directions in Treatment, Education, and Outreach for Mental Health and Addiction

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What Promotes Wisdom in 12-Step Recovery?

Cited by 3 publications

References 25 publications

Social processes explaining the benefits of Al-Anon participation.

Social processes explaining the benefits of Al-Anon participation.

An Exploration of Wisdom in Mid- to Older-Aged Adults: An Australian Context

Practice, Advocacy, and Outreach: Perspectives on Addiction Services

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