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Degree of Sobriety in Male Alcoholics and Coping Styles used by their Wives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Jack B. Schaffer  and
John D. Tyler
Jack B. Schaffer
Affiliation:
Department of Family Practice and Community Health, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
John D. Tyler
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota 58202
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Summary

The ‘Coping With Drinking’ questionnaire, administered to 124 A1-anon members, was factor analyzed and revealed nine identifiable styles of coping. Multiple regression analyses between three measures of sobriety and each of the nine styles of coping factors provide support for the general hypothesis that the coping styles used by wives of alcoholics are related to drinking outcome. Further, those modes of coping in which the wife communicates her feelings of distress and frustration to the drinking husband in a way which is minimally threatening for him seem to be most positively related to his attainment of sobriety.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 135 , Issue 5 , November 1979 , pp. 431 - 437
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1979 

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