Differences in distress among adult children of alcoholics.

Investigated within-group differences in psychological distress, social support, and hardiness among adult children of alcoholics (ACAs). Members of ACA support groups (21 men, 58 women) were compared to ACA college students (27 men, 40 women) not involved in such support groups. Support group members reported higher levels of psychological distress, lower levels of hardiness, and less satisfaction with perceived social support than did the college student ACAs. Support group members also reported more negative feelings, attitudes, and behaviors with regard to parental alcoholism than did the college students. For both groups, hardiness and social support were negatively correlated with psychological distress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-disclosure and interpersonal functioning.

53 Peace Corps trainees were administered a self-disclosure questionnaire during a pretraining assessment program. Trainees who demonstrated a readiness to confide personal information to others were found to be more well liked by the other trainees and the training staff after 6 wk. of training than trainees who were reluctant to disclose personal information. Hypotheses concerning the relations between self-disclosure, integrative complexity, and authoritarianism were supported. The accessible trainees tended to be more integratively complex and less authoritarian than the inaccessible trainees. Implications of self-disclosure for interpersonal openness and effectiveness are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Short-term group treatment for adult children of alcoholics.

Highly significant test score changes of adult children of alcoholics supported the effectiveness of individual therapy in short-term groups. 24 Ss were tested on measures of loneliness (UCLA Loneliness Scale); anxiety, hostility, and depression (Multiple Affect Adjective Check List—Revised [MAACL—R]); and interpersonal dependency (Interpersonal Dependency Inventory [IDI]). MAACL—R Anxiety and Depression scores declined. MAACL—R Hostility scores rose at the end of the treatment and then declined sharply 8 wks later. Increases toward test norms occurred on the IDI Lack of Social Confidence scale. Scores on the IDI Emotional Reliance on Another Person scale, the IDI Assertion of Autonomy scale, and the UCLA Loneliness Scale fell within scale norms and showed little change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Substance use and symptomatology among adolescent children of alcoholics.

Assessed the magnitude and specificity of parental alcoholism as a risk factor for internalizing symptomatology, externalizing symptomatology, and alcohol and drug use in adolescence. Parents' and children's reports of symptomatology and children's reports of alcohol and drug use were evaluated in a community sample of 454 adolescents. The results showed that parental alcoholism was a moderate to strong risk factor, with stronger risk associated with recent (rather than remitted) parental alcoholism. Multivariate analyses showed that the specificity of risk varied with the outcome measure. In predicting externalizing symptomatology, the risk associated with parental alcoholism was mediated by co-occurring parental psychopathology and environmental stress. However, in predicting alcohol use, the father's alcoholism was a specific risk factor above and beyond the more generalized effects of stress and family disruption. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and object relational pathology in young adult children of alcoholics.

Compared 15 adult children of alcoholics (ACAs) with 15 non-ACAs, using the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) and 2 Rorschach measures of developmental object relational pathology and egocentricity. Higher levels of personality pathology and lower levels of object relational development were found in ACAs compared with non-ACAs, confirming the presence of personality disorders and characterological defensive adaptation. Findings are consistent with the picture of moderate characterological pathology etiologically related to developmentally based object relational deficits in ACAs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Antecedents of adult interpersonal functioning: Effects of individual differences in age 3 temperament.

We examined whether temperamental differences at age 3 are linked to interpersonal functioning in young adulthood. In a sample of over 900 children, we identified 5 distinct groups of children based on behavioral observations: Well-adjusted, undercontrolled, reserved, confident, and inhibited. At age 21, we assessed the children's interpersonal functioning in 4 social contexts: in the social network, at home, in romantic relationships, and at work. We found 3 patterns of relations: (a) Well-adjusted, reserved, and confident children defined a heterogeneous range of normative adult interpersonal behavior, (b) inhibited children had lower levels of social support but normative adjustment in romantic relationships and at work, and (c) undercontrolled children had lower levels of adjustment and greater interpersonal conflict across adult social contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intrapersonal and interpersonal risk factors for peer victimization in immigrant youth in Finland.

This study (a) compared native Finns and immigrant children with respect to different forms of peer victimization and (b) tested whether intrapersonal (e.g., depression) and interpersonal (e.g., peer rejection) risk factors help to explain the association between immigrant status and peer victimization. The sample was drawn from the first phase of a large intervention evaluation project, KiVa, in Finland, composed of 4,957 native Finns (51% girls), 146 first-generation immigrants (48% girls), and 310 second-generation immigrants (53% girls) 9 to 12 years of age. The concurrent data included self- and peer reports collected via Internet-based questionnaires. Compared with native youth, first- and second-generation immigrants were more often targets of both peer- and self-reported victimization. Both immigrant groups experienced higher levels of physical, racist, and sexual victimization than natives. Furthermore, second-generation immigrants reported higher levels of property damage, threats, and cybervictimization than native Finns. Significant indirect effects were found between immigrant status and victimization. Interpersonal but not intrapersonal risk factors helped to explain these associations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive rehabilitation of memory functioning in amnesiac alcoholics.

Compared a multicomponent program of intensive memory skill practice for amnesiac alcoholics with a control program in which patients received only nonspecific cognitive activation to assess the extent to which improvement would generalize to memory tasks dissimilar to those used during training and to determine how long treatment gains would be maintained. 12 amnesiac patients (mean age 57.1 yrs) were randomly assigned to either the experimental memory training or the control program. DSM-III diagnoses showed that Ss included 7 with alcohol amnesiac disorder, 2 with dementia associated with alcoholism, 2 with alcohol dependence, and 1 with amnestic syndrome. Five of the experimental Ss and all of the controls completed their respective therapy programs and progress monitor assessment; 4 of the experimental Ss and 5 of the controls completed the entire outcome assessment. Results indicate that the control group showed improvement on most measures, and both groups improved significantly on several of the outcome measures that assessed generalization of memory skills. It is concluded that memory training designed to achieve specific learning goals is likely to be more effective with chronic amnesiacs than is a program of general memory skill rehearsal. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Substance use escalation and substance use restraint among adolescent children of alcoholics.

Assessed the escalations in substance use over 3 yrs among 246 adolescent children of alcoholics (COAs) and 208 controls (aged 10.5–15.5 yrs). Older COAs showed the steepest escalations in drug use. Younger COAs whose fathers had continuing alcohol-related consequences showed the greatest escalations in alcohol use. Ss' beliefs about drinking restraint were related to their alcohol and drug use. Those whose alcoholic fathers had no continuing alcohol-related consequences showed the strongest relations between substance use and self-control reasons for limiting drinking, perceived risk for future drug problems, and seeing the negative effects of alcohol on someone else. These adolescents may be deterred from substance use escalations because of particular parental characteristics (e.g., mild forms of paternal alcoholism) or because of their beliefs about substance use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Brief treatment for adult children of alcoholics: Accessing resources for self-care.

The case of a 57-yr-old female adult child of an alcoholic (ACA) illustrates that brief treatment may be all that is necessary to help many ACAs who possess the requisites for effective self-care but who have been blocked from using them. The case shows how therapy can find a way around the inhibition of the resource of self-care by mobilizing existing internal resources so that emotional needs can be responded to in the self. In this case, the techniques of accessing resources and anchoring were drawn from neurolinguistic programming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptions of the cognitive compensation and interpersonal enjoyment functions of collaboration among middle-aged and older married couples.

Perceptions of cognitive compensation and interpersonal enjoyment of collaboration were examined in three hundred middle-aged and older couples who completed measures of perceptions of collaboration, cognitive ability, marital satisfaction, an errand task and judged their spouse's affiliation. Older adults (especially men) endorsed cognitive compensation and interpersonal enjoyment and reported using collaboration more frequently than middle-aged adults. Greater need for cognitive compensation was related to lower cognitive ability only for older wives. Greater marital satisfaction was associated with greater interpersonal enjoyment. These two functions related to reports of more frequent use of collaboration and perceptions of spousal affiliation in a collaborative task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The diagnosis and treatment of adult children of alcoholics as a specialized therapeutic population.

Discusses why treatment of adult children of alcoholics (ACAs) can be legitimately regarded as a subspecialty, even though its membership is diagnostically and developmentally heterogeneous. It is asserted that ACAs' pathology consists chiefly of different levels of developmental deficiencies and characterological adaptations. Case studies are presented to illustrate the pathogenic mechanisms triggered by or intertwined with parental alcoholism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Field dependence among male and female alcoholics: II. Norms for the rod-and-frame test

402 males and 160 females hospitalized for treatment of alcoholism were tested in a standardized manner on the Rod-and-frame test as a means of supplementing an earlier report of normative data on perceptual style among male alcoholics. When their performance was contrasted with that of normal and psychiatric samples, alcoholics were clearly the most field dependent of all groups studied. Statistically significant sex differences justify the need for separate norms for males and females.     

The impact of conducting psychotherapy on psychotherapists' interpersonal functioning.

Reviews the literature and presents several scenarios concerning the impact of practicing psychotherapy on the psychotherapist, focusing on the effects on their interpersonal functioning. Findings reveal such positive consequences of practicing psychotherapy as increased assertiveness, self-assurance, self-reliance, and self respect; negative consequences include increased anxiety and higher suicide and alcoholism rates. Ways to minimize or eliminate possible negative consequences are suggested, including alerting psychotherapists to the potential problems, more adequate screening and monitoring of allied mental health professionals at the pre- and postgraduate level, and monitoring of professionals in the field by postgraduate professional organizations. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multimethod investigation of interpersonal functioning in borderline personality disorder.

Even though interpersonal functioning is of great clinical importance for patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), the comparative validity of different assessment methods for interpersonal dysfunction has not yet been tested. This study examined multiple methods of assessing interpersonal functioning, including self- and other-reports, clinical ratings, electronic diaries, and social cognitions in three groups of psychiatric patients (N = 138): patients with (1) BPD, (2) another personality disorder, and (3) Axis I psychopathology only. Using dominance analysis, we examined the predictive validity of each method in detecting changes in symptom distress and social functioning 6 months later. Across multiple methods, the BPD group often reported higher interpersonal dysfunction scores compared with other groups. Predictive validity results demonstrated that self-report and electronic diary ratings were the most important predictors of distress and social functioning. Our findings suggest that self-report scores and electronic diary ratings have high clinical utility, because these methods appear most sensitive to change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive functioning in alcoholics: The role of subject attrition.

Studied the role of 4 S factors in research on cognitive ability in alcoholics. These factors were S attrition by failure to meet test performance criteria, duration of alcoholism, education, and age. To assess cognitive ability, 2 versions of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test were used. A total of 60 alcoholic and 37 control male Ss participated. Findings are as follows: (a) Alcoholics had a higher attrition rate than controls (30 vs 3%). (b) The attrition rate was particularly high among alcoholics who were over the age of 45 and had less than 13 yrs of education. (c) Older or less educated alcoholics performed more poorly on the 1st part of the test than did younger or more educated alcoholics. (d) Among controls and alcoholics who completed the entire test, less educated Ss performed more poorly than did more educated Ss. (e) Alcoholics who completed the entire test performed more poorly than did controls. Duration of alcoholism was not related to performance. The importance of S factors, (i.e., S attrition and S selection) in the study of cognitive deficits in alcoholics is emphasized. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality characteristics of children of alcoholics.

This study compared the personality characteristics of late adolescent and young adult children of alcoholics (COAs) with those of their peers and examined the extent to which personality differences are gender specific and are related to the gender of the alcoholic parent. Specifically, data derived from an alcohol survey of young college students (N?=?860) were used to examine familial alcoholism and personality characteristics, including impulsiveness, self-depreciation, lack of tension, independence/autonomy, need for social support, directiveness, sociability, and other-directedness. Although COA respondents were similar to their peers on most personality measures, they were more likely to report great self-depreciation. This difference in self-depreciation between COAs and their peers was greater for women than men. Women with an alcoholic father were significantly more likely than women with an alcoholic mother to report greater self-depreciation. Male COAs rated themselves significantly higher on autonomy than did their male peers, but the gender of the alcoholic parent had little effect on this variable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality profiles of children of alcoholics.

Compared 62 children of alcoholics (COAs) with the norm population on the Personality Inventory for Children. Ss had mean scores on the Family Relations, Delinquency, Depression, and Withdrawal scales that were more than 1 standard deviation above those of norm population. Analyses of individual profiles indicated a great deal of variation in the profiles of COAs. COAs were overrepresented in the clinical range of scores by approximately 4:1. Although clear signs of adjustment problems were indicated for some COAs, the majority did not show these signs. Contrary to what might be expected, there is no standard profile for COAs, and the general negative profile that is painted for COAs might not be true for most. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychological impairment in female alcoholics: Replication and extension.

In 2 separate studies, female alcoholics (N?=?50) performed significantly poorer on 12 neuropsychological tests (e.g., the WAIS and the Bender-Gestalt Test) than female nonalcoholic controls (N?=?50). The pattern of deficit was consistent across studies and similar to that reported for male alcoholics: intact verbal skills but impaired nonverbal abstracting, visual-spatial, and problem-solving abilities. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lower levels of physical functioning are associated with higher body weight among middle-aged and older women

OBJECTIVE: To compare levels of physical function, across levels of body mass index (BMI), among middle- to older-aged women. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. Physical function, body weight and other covariates were measured in 1992. SUBJECTS: 56510 women aged 45-71 y, free of cardiovascular disease and cancer, participating in the Nurses' Health Study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The four physical function scores on the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) Short Form-36 (SF36) Health Survey: physical functioning, vitality, bodily pain and role limitations. RESULTS: After adjusting for age, race, smoking status, menopausal status, physical activity and alcohol consumption, there was a significant dose-response gradient between increasing levels of BMI in 1992 and reduced function. For example, women with a BMI between 30-34.9 kg/m2 averaged: 9.0 point lower physical functioning score (95% Confidence interval (CI) -9.5, -8.5), 5.6 point lower vitality score (95% CI: -6.1, -5.1), and 7.0 point lower freedom from pain score (95% CI: -7.6, -6.4). These declines represent an approximate 10% loss of function compared to the reference category of women with BMIs ranging from 22.0-23.9 kg/m2. For the same BMI comparison, heavier women were at 66% increased risk of limitations in ability to work or perform other roles (RR = 1.66; 95% odds ratio (OR) CI: 1.56, 1.76). These findings were replicated when the sample was restricted to women who had maintained their BMI over a ten year period. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to increasing risk of chronic health conditions, greater adiposity is associated with lower every day physical functioning, such as climbing stairs or other moderate activities, as well as lower feelings of well-being and greater burden of pain.