Relationship between Family Expressed Emotion and Relapse Occurence among Inpatient Alcoholics in Nairobi County, Kenya
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Date
2015
Authors
Githae, Eunice Njango
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
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.
Description
Department of Psychology, 213p. 2015, HV 5132 .G5