Locus of control in couples with different patterns of alcohol consumption

A sample of 175 individuals were interviewed and divided in three subgroups of couples: (1) the husband was in an Anonymous Alcoholics program, (2) the husband had been diagnosed as alcoholic and (3) the husband had a regular pattern of high alcohol consumption. In personal interviews by specialized personnel the following instruments were used: the Internal-External (I-E) Locus of control scale; the Health Dailing Living (HDL) questionnaire about alcohol-related problems and patterns. The results showed a trend towards internal locus of control in both spouses for the three subgroups. Nevertheless, there is evidence of a higher internal locus in husbands and wives with regular but light alcohol consumption. As has been reported elsewhere alcohol users who had less problems in their functioning have no problems due to their alcohol use pattern. In order to know to a fuller extent the meaning of internality, a factorial analysis was applied to the I-E scale, obtaining four factors: social system control, personal failure, fatalism and personal attainment. The latter three were more capable to differentiate between the samples with different alcohol use patterns.