Browsing by Author "Githae, Eunice Njango"

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    Family Emotional Over-Involvement and Relapse among Inpatient Alcoholics in Nairobi, Kenya
    (International Organization of Scientific Research, 2016) Githae, Eunice Njango; Sirera, Merecia; Wasanga, Christine
    Family interactional patterns have been proposed as significant in relapse of most psychiatric disorders. Many studies have demonstrated that patterns of interactions of family members affect the quality of relationships within such families. Research, particularly in Systems Theories, has also indicated that the ways in which family members interact with each other is cyclic and affect recovery and sustainability of treatment among psychiatric patients. Although the relationship between family communication dynamics and psychiatric relapse has received much attention, few studies have focused on such dynamics within alcoholic families. This study has examined one of the interactional patterns referred to as emotional over-involvement (EOI) among close family members with alcoholic patients. The study is underpinned by the Family Systems Theory (Minuchin, 1974), and views alcoholism as a „family illness‟. The study derived samples from inpatient alcoholics in rehabilitation centers (N=186) and their family members in Nairobi County, Kenya. The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) was used to assess for alcoholism, while a questionnaire was generated to assess family EOI. Interviews were also carried out and were corroborated with the questionnaires. Pearson correlations and regression analyses showed that EOI was statistically significant at p=0.000<0.05 and had a predictive value of .471. This meant that EOI expressed by family members was a very significant predictor for relapse among recovering alcoholics.
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    Relationship between Family Expressed Emotion and Relapse Occurence among Inpatient Alcoholics in Nairobi County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2015) Githae, Eunice Njango
    Alcoholism is a family illness that requires treatment of the whole family, because recovery after rehabilitation seems mostly achievable when both the individual and their family are involved in relapse prevention. While studies have demonstrated that family plays an important role from diagnosis to treatment of alcoholism, few studies have focused on the interpersonal dynamics of family members which would maintain the alcoholic behaviours and lead to relapse. Such interpersonal dynamics would include the family emotional expression (EE) and how it may relate to relapse. In this study, the relationship between family EE (characterized by hostility, criticism and emotional over-involvement) and the occurrence of relapse in alcoholism was examined. The Family Systems Theory informed the current study in helping understand the complex dynamics of interactions of family members and how such interactions maintained maladaptive behaviours such as alcoholism. Samples were derived from populations of inpatient alcoholics (N=186) and their family members (N=135) in Nairobi County, Kenya. The instruments used in the study were the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) to assess for alcoholism. The Family Member Attitude Scale (FMAS) and the Individual Attitude Perception Scale (IAPS) were used for assessing family EE. In addition, individual interview schedules were developed to assess how both the alcoholic and family members perceived family EE and how this may have contributed to relapse. Pearson correlations were used to test the relationship between the dependent variable (relapse) and the independent variables (hostility, criticism, and emotional over-involvement). Regression analyses were used to clarify the nature of the relationship of the variables, and to assess the statistical significance using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The study found out that EE was statistically significant at p=0.000<0.05 and had a predictive power of 34%. While hostility was found to have an inverse relationship with relapse (β=-.133), criticism was found to predict relapse at 28.2% and overinvolvement at 47.1%. This could mean that EOI was the major EE predictor variable for relapse among recovering alcoholics. The EE/relapse association was also evidenced by interviews by the participants. It was concluded that high levels of family EE were a contributing factor to returning to heavy drinking after treatment of an alcoholic.