Sex-role conflicts in alcoholic women

Institutionalized actively alcoholic women (N = 46) were compared to groups of nondrinkers (N = 24), social drinkers (N = 61), and remitted alcoholics (N = 29) (both institutionalized and noninstitutionalized) on scales of sex-role conflict, sex-role ideology, sex-role satisfaction, and depression. When the factors of age, socioeconomic status, and marital status were controlled, alcoholic women scored as more depressed and more sex-role undifferentiated than nonalcoholic women. Alcoholic women were also found to have a relatively traditional sex-role ideology, and remitted alcoholics expressed less satisfaction than other groups with some traditional female roles. Evidence was not found to support the theory that alcoholic women experience a greater degree of sex-role conflict (as measured by the Bem Sex-Role Inventory) than nonalcoholic women.