SYMLOG-RESEARCH ON FAMILIES WITH ALCOHOLIC FATHERS - THE BEHAVIOR TOWARDS RESPONSIBILITY WITHIN THE PARENTAL DYADE

In the "Odenwald Study" interactional behaviour within 126 families was described by employing the SYMLOG methodological inventory and the family climate scales from a self-perspective. Families with a male alcoholic indexpatient (40/29; first measurement/repeated measurement) were compared to a clinical control group of families with eating disorders (49) and to a non-clinical group (37). Measurements at three different time points were taken to reflect the intra-family relations of the alcoholic patient's family prior to treatment of the alcoholic father, with termination of treatment and after an approximately six month post-treatment catamnesis. The alcoholic fathers behaviour towards responsibility as observed from families perspective significantly changed with the course of therapy, exhibiting a significant increase between the onset and the termination of therapy. At the time of catamnesis tendencies of regression are evident. Likewise, the difference in acceptance of responsibility behaviour between fathers and mothers was significantly diminished from T1 to T2. A comparison to the non-clinical group underlines these results. Women from the alcoholic patients group exhibited no significant changes of acceptance of responsibility during the course of therapy. Furthermore, they differed at no timepoint from the group of non-clinical wives.