One of the purposes of the study was to obtain information on how family members' perceptions of the family's homeostasis changes over time as the family passes from a crisis period through a transition phase from a wet (drinking) to a dry (non-drinking) state. In addition, the study examined the impact that changes in the family system may have on maintaining a dry state after the completion of an alcoholism treatment program that involved family members. Twenty families participated in the study. Family members completed instruments that measured family cohesion, adaptability, dynamics, satisfaction, and family/social functioning at three different measurement occasions. Those measurement occasions were at the beginning (Time 1) and completion (Time 2) of a family treatment program for alcoholism, and at a month follow-up (Time 3). The primary test for each hypothesis was a repeated measures analysis of variance where the within subject factor was the measurement occasions (Time). In general, the results of the study suggested that a month follow-up, the families were still in a disrupted state of homeostasis as reflected in the scores for adaptability, cohesion, and dynamics. However, the findings of the study indicated that the families were more satisfied with the family system at the time of follow-up than at the beginning of a family program. In addition, family members reported being more involved in activities with each other at the follow-up period than at the start of a family program.

M.Cur. / The abuse of alcohol has a huge impact on health-related problems worldwide. The incidence rate of alcohol abuse in South Africa is on the increase according to Van Niekerk (2001:325). Alcohol dependency causes dysfunction in families resulting in problems such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, impaired relationships and poor parenting (Prest & Protinsky 1993:352). The family system becomes dysfunctional by organising itself in a way which enables and protects the alcohol dependant’s drinking habits. This phenomenon is called “ co-dependency”. The family is ignorant of the problem and becomes isolated. The concept “co-dependency” has been used since the late 1970’s to describe the problems affecting the spouse of the alcoholic and later to include the children. Co-dependency is characterised by features such as low self-esteem, poor identity formation, overuse of denial and the urge to control others. The co-dependant’s involvement with others in order to care and control leads to mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and substance abuse. It becomes a vicious cycle difficult to escape from. Health care professionals may be unaware of the underlying family problems when the co-dependant seeks help for physical and mental illness, resulting in the complexity of the problem not being addressed. Psychiatric nurses need guidelines to facilitate the mental health of the co-dependant spouse. The first goal of this study was to explore and describe the lived experience of the co-dependant spouse. The second goal was to develop guidelines for the psychiatric nurse to facilitate the mental health of the co-dependant spouse. The theoretical framework of the Theory for Health Promotion in Nursing by the Department of Nursing of the Rand Afrikaans University (2002:2-7) was used as point of departure in conducting this research. The researcher followed a functional approach according to the Botes model for nursing research (RAU, 2002:8-13). An explorative, descriptive, contextual and qualitative research design was used for this study (Babbie & Mouton, 2001:79-81). In-depth semi-structured phenomenological interviews were conducted with participants meeting the criteria for inclusion. Purposive sampling was used (Burns & Grove 1997:307). A pilot study was conducted. To ensure trustworthiness, the researcher made use of Guba’s model (Lincoln & Guba 1985: 290-300). The researcher used Tesch’s approach (Poggenpoel in De Vos, 1998:343) to transcribe the recorded interviews and to analyse the data gathered from the interviews. A literature control was conducted to re-contextualise the results within the literature. The researcher came to the conclusion that the total being of the co-dependant is dismantled by the effect of the addictive process. It was found that the ripple effect of co-dependency is far reaching, causing dysfunction of the family structure and mental health problems of the individual family members. In order to break the vicious cycle of addiction, simultaneous intervention at different levels of the addiction process was required. Therefore co-dependency should be dealt with as part of a bigger process by the psychiatric nurse when intervening. Guidelines were developed for the psychiatric nurse in order to facilitate the mental health of the co-dependant in a holistic manner. Conclusions were drawn, limitations of the research were highlighted and recommendations were made for the nursing practice, nursing education and nursing research.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Clinical Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

No description available.

The thesis was designed to identify adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs) among a sample of Ball State University students. The prevalence of common characteristic behaviors among adult anonymous survey was administered to two large sections of the Health Science, Fundamentals of Human Health class to obtain a representative sample.The results of the survey identified 21.9 percent of the 288 subjects to be adult children of alcoholics. A combined total of 31.6 percent of the 288 subjects were identified be adult children of problem drinkers and ACOAs. The most prevalent characteristic behavior identified by the ACOA population is statement number six, “I take myself very seriously.” This behavior characteristic was checked by 49.2 percent of the 63 identified ACOAs. The remaining 19 statements also were analyzed to enable the investigator to develop an accurate ACOA profile. / Department of Physiology and Health Science

D.Litt. et Phil. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

No description available.

This thesis includes a full length play and a separate section describing the creation of this play. The play depicts family members struggling with the direct and indirect ramifications of alcoholism, depression, and suicide. The play is composed of two acts; act one contains eight scenes, and act two contains six scenes. It is set in the 1950s and 1960s and takes place in various areas of the family home, at a wedding reception, and at a funeral. The essay section includes a description of the process, a record of changes in the play's direction, notations of personal discoveries, and a self evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the play.

No description available.

Whereas many studies of adult children of alcoholics (COAs) have utilized clinical subjects, subjects in this study (n = 229) were relatively well functioning college students. The Children ofAlcoholics Screening Test (CAST; Jones, 1983) was utilized to define parental alcoholism.Results of a multivariate analysis of variance indicated that COAs were more likely to exhibit symptoms related to poor psychological adjustment than were their non-COA peers. No significant psychological differences in male and female COAs were found. COAs scored significantly higher than non-COAs (p.< .01) on the Alienation scale of the Psychological Screening Inventory (PSI; Lanyon, 1978), indicating the greater similarity of COAs to those with psychiatric problems. Social Nonconformity, as a measure of psychopathic behavior, was higher for COAs than for non-COAs (p. < .001). COAs from lower income families demonstrated higher scores on the Discomfort scale (p < .01), which measures symptoms. Those subjects who reported parental greater symptomatology and anxiety than those who reported no parental depression (p. ( .001). Although parental divorce rates were higher for COAs (32.4%) as compared to non-COAs (10.9%), no significant association with any of the psychological variables was found for parental divorce.In comparison to non-COAs, both male and female COAs evidenced greater problem alcohol use (p < .001) measured by the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST; Selzer, 1971). As demonstrated by a MAST score of 7 or more, 88.8% of male COAs and 30.5% of female COAs indicated serious alcohol-related problems. Parental depression was also significantly related to problem alcohol use in subjects. It was found that the MacAndrew scale (MAC; MacAndrew, 1965) was of little utility for identifying subjects with problem alcohol use. / Department of Educational Psychology