title: Abstinence and well-being among members of Alcoholics Anonymous: personal experience and social perceptions.
abstract: The authors examined the subjective experience of well-being (WB) among abstinent Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) members and social perceptions of an abstinent alcoholic's WB among 3 nonalcoholic French-Canadian samples: male police officers, Catholic nuns, and university women. The short-term abstinent AA members, along with the university women, reported the lowest self-ratings of WB, whereas the Catholic nuns reported the highest. However, among the abstinent AA members, the level of WB was positively related to the length of abstention. The 3 nonalcoholic groups evaluated an abstinent AA member more positively than a nonabstinent alcoholic. These evaluations of an abstinent AA member converged with the AA members' self-evaluations on the measure of WB.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Montreal. sylvia.kairouz@umontreal.ca
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kairouz
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dubé
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000436:Alcoholics Anonymous; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D012737:Sex Factors; D012938:Social Perception; D013695:Temperance / Q000523:psychology*