The role of work for wives of alcoholics
The evolution of the research and professional literature on wives of alcoholics covers a continuum of theories from a psychoanalytic orientation regarding the psychopathology of wives, to a sociological approach describing the stress encountered while living while an alcoholic, to a focus on family systems and interaction patterns within the alcoholic family. The Disturbed Personality Hypothesis was the first attempt to describe the behaviors of wives of alcoholics. This hypothesis viewed the wife as an inadequate, dependent woman who married an alcoholic to meet her unconscious personality needs[1-4]. The Decompensation Hypothesis added that attempts by the alcoholic to reduce or stop drinking would result in the personality decompensation of the wife [5-7]Jackson[8] expanded the focus from wives of alcoholics to the adjustment of the total family and the stress of living with alcoholism. She posited that the family passes through seven identifiable stages in attempts to cope with an alcoholic member, while the wife’s personality changes to accommodate the drinking of the alcoholic. Jackson and others who expanded on her work[9-12] concluded that the behavior of wives is specific to the external stressful environment of alcoholism rather than a reflection of the wife’s personality inadequacies. More recently, Moos et al.[13] compared spouses of recovered and relapsed alcoholics to community controls, reporting no increased incidence of disturbed personality or dysfunctional behavior among spouses of recovered alcoholics.
Systems theory, as developed by Steinglass and colleagues[14-16], introduced an interactional framework which helped identify the role of alcohol in stabilizing the family and meeting the needs of its members. By examining family processes within the alcoholic system, it was observed that couples responded to the drinking in a manner that has adaptive consequences for the family. Current models of family dysfunction, spearheaded by adult children of alcoholics proponents, combine a sociological and family systems perspective to focus on the generational transmission of alcoholism[17-21].
However, these theories provide researchers and the treatment community with limited empirical data. The literature on alcoholic families, as noted in recent articles[22, 23], is characterized by narrow conceptual frameworks, anecdotal rather than empirical approaches, and small numbers of subjects. In addition, the majority of studies of the alcoholic family have overlooked the potential value of the work role and its effect in family dynamics. This has been particularly true in the case of the wife of the alcoholic who has been described almost exclusively within the domain of the home. Wives’ employment, if considered, was seen by many as one of several transitory coping responses associated with male alcoholism[8, 9, 11, 24). Even Marital Interaction Theory, which examines family processes within the alcoholic family, did not assess the role of work and its impact on family interactions.
Consideration must be given to the role of work when examining the dynamics of alcoholic families. Work is often viewed as an organizer of daily life. Work contributes to one’s sense of self and gives stability and continuity to that sense once it has been established. Work, then, is a central element in achieving and maintaining a sense of personal identity[25]. Work has been recognized within the social science literature as an important source of social support[26]. Employment could be seen as a long-term role, creating new strains as well as new opportunities for support networks. It also is acknowledged that women do not work solely for financial reasons although that is a common motivator[27]. With the current emphasis on self-development and personal growth, many women view their job as a career which offers significant self-fulfillment[28].
Further, the alcoholism literature needs to recognize the changing nature of the American family and how the movement of women into the work world has fundamentally reshaped the nature of family, work, and society. The number of women in the work force increased 173% from 1947 to 1980[29], with women accounting for 45% of civilians in the labor force today[30]. By the turn of the twenty-first century, women are expected to constitute more than three-fifths of new entrants into the labor force[31]. Family structure, interactions, roles, and behaviors have been markedly influenced by the increasing numbers of women who consider work to be a significant factor in their lives.
Therefore, this study attempted to improve understanding of the dynamics of alcoholism in families as well as the effects of dual employment on the interactions of the family. Both direct and indirect measures were utilized to evaluate the effect of husband’s alcoholism on wives’ work performance, as well as wives’ physical and psychological morbidity.
METHOD
Subjects
The data reported here are part of a larger study of 91 men admitted for inpatient alcoholism treatment. Subjects were participants in three residential treatment programs for substance abuse with an average length of stay of 14 days. Husbands ranged in age from 26 to 63 with a mean age of 42 years. Inclusion criteria were being married or cohabitating for at least the past 3 years, having alcoholism as a primary diagnosis, having no severe psychiatric disorder, and being employed full-time. Consecutive admissions who met the study criteria, who agreed to participate, and whose wives agreed to participate became research subjects. Informed consent was given by all respondents. This paper focuses on those 60 wives of alcoholics who were employed. The wives ranged in age from 23 to 62 years with a mean of 40 years, as shown in Table 1. Ninety-five percent of the wives were high school graduates, with 29% having completed college. These women were typically Catholic and White. Most of the wives were married for the first time, with a median length of marriage at 12 years. The mean number of children living at home was just less than 2, with a range from 0 to 8. None of the women reported problems of alcohol or drug dependence, but half identified themselves as children of alcoholics. This figure is extraordinarily high, given that recent surveys found a lifetime prevalence in only 11.5 to 15.7% of American adults[32].