Citation

Liepman MR, Nirenberg TD, Doolittle RH, Begin AM, Broffman TE, Babich ME. Fam. Process 1989; 28(2): 239-249.

Affiliation

Hubbard Human Services, Webster, MA 01570.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1989, Family Process Institute, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2659389

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.

Language: en