Sympathy and misery in families with drinking problems

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaretha Järvinen ◽  
Charlotte Bloch
Keyword(s):  
Adult Children Of Alcoholics ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Children Of Alcoholics ◽  
Alcohol Problems ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Problem Drinkers ◽  
Drinking Problems ◽  
Parental Obligations ◽  
Emotional Relationships

Sympathy is an emotion that connects people in trouble with those around them. This paper uses Candace Clark’s sociological theory on sympathy-giving to explore the emotional relationships between adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs) and their parents. Three dimensions are singled out as being central to sympathy-giving. We show, first, that the ‘sympathy accounts’ of alcoholic parents are related to the degree to which they live up to standardized parental obligations. Second, ACOAs’ sympathy investment in their parents is associated with the parents’ reciprocation – in terms of returning the sympathy, showing gratitude and/or acknowledging their problems and trying to solve them. Third, the interviewees’ sympathy-giving is related to the moral status they ascribe to problem drinkers, and especially their conceptions of alcohol problems as being self-inflicted or caused by circumstances the drinker cannot control. The paper is based on qualitative interviews with 25 ACOAs recruited through a survey in Denmark.

Adult Children of Problem Drinkers in an Urban Community

1990 ◽  
Vol 156 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nady A. El-Guebaly ◽  
John R. Walker ◽  
Colin A. Ross ◽  
Raymond F. Currie
Keyword(s):  
Adult Children ◽  
Alcohol Problems ◽  
Problem Drinkers ◽  
Biological Father ◽  
Or Education ◽  
Drinking Problems ◽  
Drinking Problem ◽  
Canadian City ◽  
Parental Drinking ◽  
The Impact

In a medium-sized Canadian city, 581 randomly selected households were contacted and responded to a survey on the impact of parental alcohol problems. Twenty-two per cent of the respondents indicated that at least one of their parents had a drinking problem. The biological father was affected in 81%. Compared with the rest of the sample, the adult children of problem drinkers were younger but they did not differ in income or education. Adult children of problem drinkers were more likely to have parents who were divorced or separated; to be divorced, separated, or remarried themselves; to be heavy drinkers and have indications of alcohol problems; and to use more sources of help for problems with stress and anxiety and problems with alcohol. They did not differ from those without parental drinking problems on measures of current positive and negative affect.

Tendency toward Controlling Behavior in Adult Children of Problem Drinkers: An Experimental Study

1993 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 691-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Hemmings ◽  
Harvey J. Irwin
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Adult Children ◽  
Adult Children Of Alcoholics ◽  
Children Of Alcoholics ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Problem Drinkers ◽  
Coin Toss ◽  
Control Subjects ◽  
Coin Tossing ◽  
Controlling Behavior

Several clinicians have remarked on an obsessive need to control among adult children of alcoholics. In an experimental test of this hypothesis 30 adult children of problem drinkers and 31 control subjects performed a computer-simulated coin-tossing task. On half of the trials the outcome of the coin toss was open to control; the outcome was random on the remainder of the trials. The children of problem drinkers and the control group did not differ in their success on the task, but in comparison to control subjects the children of problem drinkers tended to perceive a greater difference between controllable and random trials in the coin-tossing task's openness to control. Of the two groups, the control subjects proved to be more realistic in their assessment of the control they had exercised during the task. These findings are discussed in terms of the theme of control in the lives of the adult children of alcoholics.

scholarly journals Characteristics of selected traits of Adult Children of Alcoholics in the context of theirparents’ attitudes

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 331-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Izabela Zakrzewska ◽  
Agnieszka Samochowiec
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Adult Children ◽  
Adult Children Of Alcoholics ◽  
Satisfaction With Life ◽  
Parental Attitudes ◽  
Children Of Alcoholics ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Alcohol Problems ◽  
Satisfaction With Life Scale ◽  
Retrospective Assessment

AbstractChildren growing up in families with alcohol problems experience many emotions and events that are inadequate to their age. All these experiences are related to their subsequent functioning. Having a mother or a father suffering from alcohol dependence has a big impact on who one becomes in the future and how he/she perceives the world and other people.The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the level of self-esteem, satisfaction with life as well as basic hope in the so-called Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACoA), and the attitudes of their parents.The study involved 49 persons, aged from 18 to 70. To obtain the necessary data we used the Questionnaire Survey for Adult Children of Alcoholics, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), Basic Hope Inventory (BHI-R) and Re-trospective Assessment of Parental Attitudes Questionnaire (KPR-Roc).The results show a positive correlation between the level of self-esteem and life satisfaction, and the attitudes of autonomy and acceptance in the mothers of our subjects. Also, life satisfaction, self-esteem and basic hope proved to be interrelated, i.e. an increase within one coincided with an increase in the other two. In addition, our results show that experiencing violence in the families of persons with the ACoA syndrome significantly correlates with the retrospective assessment of their parents' attitudes. Fathers in the so-called violent families are perceived as excessively demanding, yet inconsistent, while mothers as more rejecting and less protecting.

Professional judgements of risk and capacity in situations of self-neglect among older people

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1055-1072 ◽  
Author(s):  
SHANNON MCDERMOTT
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Older People ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Medical Illness ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Professional Intervention ◽  
Sydney Australia

ABSTRACTOver the past 50 years, self-neglect among older people has been conceptualised in both social policy and the academy as a social problem which is defined in relation to medical illness and requires professional intervention. Few authors, however, have analysed the concept of self-neglect in relation to critical sociological theory. This is problematic because professional judgements, which provide the impetus for intervention, are inherently influenced by the social and cultural context. The purpose of this article is to use critical theory as a framework for interpreting the findings from a qualitative study which explored judgements in relation to older people in situations of self-neglect made by professionals. Two types of data were collected. There were 125 hours of observations at meetings and home assessments conducted by professionals associated with the Community Options Programme in Sydney, Australia, and 18 professionals who worked with self-neglecting older people in the community gave in-depth qualitative interviews. The findings show that professional judgements of self-neglect focus on risk and capacity, and that these perceptions influence when and how interventions occur. The assumptions upon which professional judgements are based are then further analysed in relation to critical theory.

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