Distance from mother and father among alcoholics

The relationship of parental closeness to current behavior and related psychopathological indices is studied among alcoholics. Seventy alcoholics from an inpatient treatment unit and thirty medical inpatients were given a battery of alcohol related measures. These measures included a scale assessing the psychological distance from mother and father, a social closeness measure, an index of anger, a locus of control measure, along with basic alcohol-related information. In addition, the alcoholic sample was given psychometric measures of depression and cognition. Results show that perceived distance from parents is greater among alcoholics than medical patients. Comparison analyses of mother and father distance scores on the study variables of alcohol-related and psychometric measures yielded only a few differences. Correlational analyses showed, however, that distance from mother and father is related to parental alcohol abuse and parents not being at home but not to current behavior (except anger).