Drinking status and stigmatization

Research focused on the stigmatizing effects of alcohol-related labels has typically focused on social rejection (usually using a social distance scale). In the present study, affective reactions (or attitudes) were obtained with regard to four labels: alcoholic, problem drinker, recovered alcoholic, and social drinker. These attitudes were compared across four groups: an urban sample, a rural sample, a sample of graduate social work students, and a sample of alcoholics from a detoxification center. The results indicated that labeling persons as alcoholics or problem drinkers may lead to stigmatization, with the extent of stigmatization a function of the type of social group to which the respondents belonged. In addition, the destigmatization potential of certain labels that are used by self-help groups appeared to be questionable. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for treatment, particularly with respect to the similarities and differences between the alcoholic and the student-practitioner samples.