Mulheres dependentes de álcool: levantamento transgeracional do genograma familiar / Alcohol dependent women: a study of the transgenerational genogram

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2009

RESUMO

INTRODUCTION: the literature has extensively reported the association between family environment and alcohol use. However, few studies have investigated this issue specifically in families of alcohol dependent women. The present study sought to compare aspects of family functioning over three generations: current generation (partners and children), generation of parents and siblings, and generation of paternal and maternal grandparents of alcohol dependent and non-dependent women based on their own accounts. METHODS: there were studied 30 alcohol dependent women who attended the Drug Dependent Women Treatment Center (PROMUD) at Clínicas Hospital Institute of Psychiatry of Universidade de São Paulo Medical School and 32 non-dependent women attending a general gynecology outpatient clinic of the Department of Obstetric and Gynecology at Clínicas Hospital in Curitiba. The study instruments included a family genogram especially constructed for this study and the Family Environment Scale (FES). RESULTS: alcohol dependent women were older and more educated, a smaller number of them had partners, and they had fewer children than controls. Several differences were found in family structure consistently indicating that the families of alcohol dependent women are more dysfunctional. These women established dysfunctional attachments with different family pairs: conflicts with their mothers, partners, and paternal grandfathers; overinvolvement of father and daughter; and conjugal conflicts in all generations. Families of alcohol dependent women are characteristically overinvolved showing triangulation, physical, psychological and/or sexual abuse, and divorce. Alcohol abuse was also found in these womens mothers and partners. Their mothers also held the power of decision in these families. When alcohol abuse was related to the phases of the family life cycle, it was found that these women started abusing alcohol with their partners when their children were little or adolescents. FES results showed differences between both groups studied in the subscales Cohesion, Expressiveness, Conflict, Organization, and Religion indicating that the families of these women were more dysfunctional. CONCLUSIONS: the study findings reinforce the hypothesis that the families of alcohol dependent women are generally more dysfunctional and that many of these dysfunctional behaviors are transmitted through generations.

ASSUNTO(S)

alcoholism família mulheres women family intergenerational relations alcoolismo relação entre gerações

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