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Vol . III : Issue.

11 ISSN:0975-9999
ANXIETY, AGE DIFFERENCE AT MARRIAGE AND COPING STYLES
OF SPOUSES OF ALCOHOLICS
Dr. K. Manikandan ,
Associate Professor , Department of Psychology ,University of Calicut
Kerala.
Mary Antony, P
Department of Psychology ,University of Calicut, Kerala.
ABSTRACT
Alcoholism among individuals dramatically increased nowadays. It affects the life as well
as family of the alcoholics. This study was designed to investigate the influence of anxiety and age
difference at marriage on coping styles of spouses of alcoholics and also examined the general
behavior pattern of alcoholics and their family. Data was collected using STAI, AECOM and
background information schedule from 61 women whose husbands were undergoing de-addiction
treatment. The participants were selected by purposive sampling and their age ranges from 20
70. Statistical technique used to analyse the data was two-way ANOVA. Results revealed that
state anxiety as well as trait anxiety significantly interact each other in all components of coping
styles except a few.

Key words: Alcoholism, Anxiety, Coping Styles


Introduction
parents. Family responsibilities shift from two
According to the Random House parents to one parent. As a result, the non-
Dictionary of the English Language (1966), alcoholic parent may be inconsistent,
alcoholism is defined as a diseased condition demanding, and often pr oblem with the
due to the excessive use of alcoholic beverages. children. Having financial difficulties is
Alcoholism is also known as a family disease. another issue that families of alcoholics have
Alcoholics may have young, teenage, or grown- to deal with.
up children; they have wife; they have brothers
Stress has typically been used to refer
or sisters; they have parents or other relatives.
both to adjustive demands placed on an
An alcoholic can totally disrupt family life and
organism and to the organisms internal
cause harmful effects that can last a lifetime.
biological and psychological responses to such
Parental alcoholism also has severe effects on
demands. The two main coping styles are task
normal children of alcoholics. Many of these
oriented coping and defense oriented coping.
children have common symptoms such as low
A task oriented response may involve making
self-esteem, loneliness, guilt, feelings of
changes in ones self, ones surroundings or
helplessness, fears of abandonment, and chronic
both depending on the situation. When a
depression (Berger, 1993).
persons feelings of adequacy are seriously
Alcoholism also has negative effects on threatened by a stressor, a defense oriented
the spouse of an alcoholic. The spouse may have response tends to prevail that is behavior is
feelings of hatred, self-pity, avoidance of social directed primarily at protecting the self from
contacts, may suffer exhaustion and become hurt and disorganization, rather than at solving
physically or mentally ill (Berger, 1993). Very the situation. Dawson, Grant, Chou and Stinson
often the spouse has to perform the roles of both (2007) reported that women whose partners had
SELP Journal of Social Science 24 July - September 2012
Vol . III : Issue. 11 ISSN:0975-9999
alcohol problems were more likely to experience 61 spouses of alcoholics; were selected by
victimization, injury, mood disorders, anxiety purposive random sampling and their age
disorders and being in fair of poor health than ranges from 20 to 70, and whose husbands
women whose partners did not have alcohol received inpatient treatment from various de-
problems. Female spouses had a tendency addiction centers.
towards more avoidant coping behavior and Instruments
more reported symptoms of depression,
The following standardized measures
obsession/compulsion and hostility (Zetterlind
were used for measuring the variables
& Berglund, 2007). Studies also showed that
psychological distress among spouses of 1. State Trait Anxiety Inventory Form Y:
alcoholics was most strongly associated with The State- Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was
lower satisfaction with marital relationship, developed by Spielberger (1983) comprises
presence of domestic violence, lower frequency separate self report scales for measuring State
of male partners drinking, lower perceived social and Trait anxiety. The S anxiety scale evaluate
support from family and more frequent attempts how respondents feel right now, at this
to cope with partners drinking (Christopher, moment. The Tanxiety scale assess how
Barbara, McGrady, Elizabeth & Stein, 2003). people generally feel. The test-retest
These studies revealed that discord, fearful reliability for the STAI Form Y for, T-Anxiety
withdrawal and avoidance were the styles used among male and female college students are
by most wives of alcoholic men. The 0.68 (N=174) and 0.65 (N=201) respectively
combination of styles used by wives at a for 60 days. The test-retest reliability for the
particular time seemed dependent on the age, STAI Form Y, for S- Anxiety among male and
extraversion and neuroticism in the wife and the female college students are 0.51 (N=177) and
duration of husbands drinking (Chakravarthy 0.36 (N=205) respectively for 60 days.
& Ranganathan, 1985). 2. AECOM Coping Style: The AECOM
The problem that wives of alcoholics (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) coping
face is multidimensional. They have to make scale developed by Plutchik (1980), which
lot of adjustments in social, financial, emotional postulates systematic connection between eight
and sexual spheres of life. Although alcoholism basic emotions and eight coping styles. This
is very prevalent in Kerala, there is a tendency scale consists of 87 items each rated by the
for people to socially isolate families of subject on a 4 point scale ranging from never
alcoholics. It is not uncommon that the wives to often, weighted 0 to 3. It is based on the
of alcoholics were blamed or accused for their expressed opinion that the way each individual
husbands maladaptive ways of life. The cope with successful life events is relatively
independent on his/her emotional or
spouses will have to take the whole
psychopathological state and is characteristic
responsibility to make a living and to look after
of him or her.
the children. There will also be frequent marital
conflicts between partners and domestic 3. Background Information Schedule: The
violence is found to be high in such families. personal details of the participants were
collected using background information
Method
schedule. Socio demographic details such as
Participants age, religion, education and occupation of
The participants of this study consist of participants and also of their spouses were

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Vol . III : Issue. 11 ISSN:0975-9999
collected. It also collected details such as the on state anxiety and Trait anxiety were
age difference between husband and wife, years considered as low group and above median
of their marriage, number of children-their age considered as high group. For the variable Age
and sex, type of family, history of alcoholism difference at marriage, those participants
in husbands family, duration of drinking. having age difference below seven (7) were
Procedure considered as Low group and those who are
having above seven years were considered as
Initially, consent from the directors of High group and two separate two-way ANOVA
the de-addiction centers was obtained. The (2 x 2) for State anxiety vs Age difference at
purpose, nature and importance of the study marriage and Trait anxiety vs Age difference
were told to the directors and they arranged a at marriage was computed on coping styles and
favorable environment for data collection. The the results are presented in the table 1 and table
measures wer e administered to selected 2.
participants after giving needed instruction to
them. Assurance was given to each that the Table 1
information gathered from them would be used F values of Coping Style by State Anxiety and
only for research purpose and identity would Age difference at marriage (2 x 2)
be kept confidential. The completed instruments
were collected back and scored according to the
manual and analysed with two-way ANOVA.
Results and Discussion
The number of alcoholics is increasing
day by day. Now a days people are not just
drinking, but consuming. Alcoholism creates
problem not only to person but also to the entire
society. Alcohol is taken by people in order to
reduce their tensions, but this in turn creates
problem to themselves and also to others.
Pattern of relationship with the family is also
disturbed due to alcoholism. Therefore it is need
of the hour to have an intervention in this area.
In this study the investigators has mainly From table 1 it can be observed that the ANOVA
focused on the spouses of male alcoholics of coping styles by state anxiety and age
because; the spouses are much closely related difference at marriage, the calculated F value
to alcoholics than other family members.
for interaction between these variables were
To know the effect of State anxiety, Trait anxiety greater than tabled (p < .01) value for five
and Age difference at marriage on different coping styles out of eight. The results revealed
coping styles, the variables State anxiety, Trait
that the coping styles - suppression, blame,
anxiety and Age difference at marriage were
classified into two groups i.e., high and low substitution, mapping and reversal were
groups based on the median as the cutoff point significantly interacting each other and for the
for the variable State anxiety and Trait anxiety. remaining three coping styles, the interactions
The participants having scores below median were found to be not significant. The calculated
SELP Journal of Social Science 26 July - September 2012
Vol . III : Issue. 11 ISSN:0975-9999
F values for variables suppression (F=3.91, p < of interaction effect for each variable of coping
.05), blame (F=6.12, p < .05), substitution styles were as follows. For variables
(F=14.88, p < .01), mapping (F= 4.82, p < .05), minimization the F value is 4.40 (p < .05),
and reversal (F=6.78, p < .01) differ significantly suppression F=3.77 (p < .05), seeking
succorance F=15.11 (p < .01), replacement
among two groups. This result indicates that
F=7.57 (p < .01), blame F=11.49 (p < .01),
though state anxiety and age difference did not
substitution F= 15.67 (p < .01), mapping
influence individually but they jointly influence F=8.73, (p < .01) and reversal F=6.24 (p < .05).
the coping styles of spouses of alcoholics. This implies that the variables trait anxiety and
Except the coping style mapping in all other age difference at marriage of alcoholics
variables the highest mean score were obtained spouses has significant effect on the coping
by Group II (Age difference at marriage above strategies adopted by them in their married life.
7) when compared to Group I (Age difference Chakravarthy and Ranganathan (1985)
at marriage below 7). examined the coping behavior of wives of
Table 2 F values of Coping Styles by Trait alcoholic men and revealed that discord, fearful
Anxiety and Age difference at marriage (2 x 2) withdrawal and avoidance were the styles used
by most wives of alcoholic men. Coping styles
used by wives of alcoholics are related to
drinking outcome. 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 (Schaffer & Tyler, 1979).
Zetterlind and Berglund (2007) has made a
study on gender differences in the behavior and
life circumstances of alcoholics spouses of ten
spouses of female alcoholics and nineteen
When the interaction effect of trait anxiety and spouses of male alcoholics. Female spouses,
age difference at marriage were calculated and however, compared with male spouses, had a
it was found that, there exists a significant tendency towards more avoidant coping
crossover effect of these two variables on coping behavior and more reported symptoms of
styles of spouses of alcoholics. From table 2 it depression, obsession/compulsion and hostility
can be observed that the calculated F value Qualitative analysis of behavioral patterns of
for interaction between trait anxiety, and age alcoholics and their family also provided
difference at marriage on coping styles, is various information, which should be given due
greater than the tabled value required for impor tance. Christians and Hindus
significance for all eight coping styles. These preponderate in the population of alcoholics of
results clearly indicate that the variable trait this study than Muslims. Majority of alcoholics
anxiety and age difference at marriage is of the study have genetic and environmental
significantly influencing the coping styles of background and also comes from low
spouses of alcoholics. The calculated F values socioeconomic status. Influence of friends and
SELP Journal of Social Science 27 July - September 2012
Vol . III : Issue. 11 ISSN:0975-9999
peer group has much relevance in an alcoholics (2007). Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life.
life. Most alcoholics have made various London: Hamper Collins college publishers.
attempts to stop their drinking and also sought Chakravarthy, C., & Ranganathan, S. (1985).
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Conclusion Dawson, D. A., Grant, B. F., Chou, S.
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Schaffer, J. B., & Tyler, J. D. (1979). Degree
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SELP Journal of Social Science 28 July - September 2012

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