Marital interaction in alcoholic and nonalcoholic couples: alcoholic subtype variations and wives' alcoholism status.
The authors examined problem-solving marital interactions of alcoholic and nonalcoholic couples (N = 132). Four alcoholic groups (husband alcoholic with antisocial personality disorder or not, paired with alcoholic or nonalcoholic wives) were compared with each other and with a both-spouses-nonalcoholic group. Consistent with the alcoholic subtypes hypothesis, couples with an antisocial alcoholic husband had higher levels of hostile behavior regardless of wives' alcoholism status. In contrast, rates of positive behaviors and the ratio of positive to negative behaviors were greatest among couples in which either both or neither of the spouses had alcoholic diagnoses and were lowest among alcoholic husbands with nonalcoholic wives. Discussion focuses on possible mechanisms linking antisocial alcoholism and discrepant alcoholic diagnoses to poorer marital outcomes.
Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302-5010, USA. ffloyd@gsu.edu
Frank J
FJ
Floyd
James A
JA
Cranford
Michelle Klotz
MK
Daugherty
Hiram E
HE
Fitzgerald
Robert A
RA
Zucker
D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology*; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology*; D010641:Phenotype; D011446:Prospective Studies; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014743:Videotape Recording