Prevention of adolescent reoccurring violence and alcohol abuse: a multiple site evaluation

Childhood with a relative's excessive alcohol use, and own drinking in adult years

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate if individuals who had been brought up by relatives (e.g. parents, siblings and grandparents) who consumed excessive alcohol effected these individuals’ own alcohol use in their adult years. The participants in the study were also asked about their alcohol consumption in the past 12 months, and abstainers were asked about their reasons for choosing to live their lives without consuming alcohol. Method: A quantitative approach was used. Data collected from the Icelandic RARHA SEAS were used in this study. A panel of 2500 respondents in the age range of 18–65 years was randomly sampled and was intended to be adequately representative of the Icelandic population. There was a 34.9% response rate ( n=873). Results: Of the 873 source of this study, 26.6% (n=211) categorised as Group A had lived with relatives who excessively consumed alcohol, and this had negatively affected them in their childhood. In their adult years, Group A seemed to be more frequently intoxicated than the control group, Group B (n=659). They also experienced more negative consequences from their alcohol consumption. Group A was likely to consume alcohol to deal with difficult feelings such as depression, and they were also more likely to abstain than Group B. Conclusions: The childhood experience of living with relatives who excessively use alcohol does not impact everyone in the same way in their adult years. Some of them are more likely to use excessive alcohol as adults without relating it to their childhood experience of relatives excessively using alcohol.

Depression, anxiety, and stress from substance-use disorder among family members in Iceland

Aims

This research was designed to explore the extent to which the use of alcohol or drugs by one member of a family affects the psychosocial state of other family members. The study asks whether family members of substance abusers are more likely to report increased depression, anxiety and stress then the general population in Iceland? Are there significant differences between family members; e.g., spouses, parents, adult children and siblings by gender, age, education and income?

Data and methods

The instrument used for this purpose is the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS), which is designed to measure those three related mental states. It was administered to 143 participants (111 women and 32 men) with ages ranging from 19-70 years on the first day of a four-week group therapy programme for relatives of substance use disorder (SUD) at The Icelandic National Centre for Addiction Treatment (SÁÁ) from August 2015 to April 2016. Thirty participants are adult children of a parent with SUD, 47 are a spouse, 56 are parents of a child with SUD and 10 are siblings. The subscales of the DASS for depression, anxiety, and stress were utilised to examine which family member - parent, child, partner, or sibling - presented the behaviour associated with SUD.

Results

36% or more of the respondents in all three subscales had average, serious, or very serious depression, anxiety, and/or stress. This is higher than in DASS studies of the general population in Iceland. However, the analysis indicates that it made little difference to the family's wellbeing which family member was affected by SUD.