Family Expressed Emotion In Relapse of Alcoholism

Abstract

Alcoholism is a family illness that requires treatment of the whole family, because recovery after rehabilitation seems mostly achievable when both the individual and their family are involved in relapse prevention. While studies have demonstrated that the family plays an important role from the diagnosis to treatment of alcoholism, few studies have focused on the interpersonal dynamics of family members which would maintain alcoholism relatedbehaviors and lead to relapse. Such interpersonal dynamics include the family emotional expression (EE) and how it may relate to relapse of an individual dependent on alcohol. The relationship between family EE and the occurrence of relapse in alcoholism was examined. The study was underpinned by the Family Systems Theory to help understand how complex interactional patterns among family members were likely to maintainmaladaptive behaviors such as alcoholism. Samples were derived from populations of inpatient individuals that were addicted to alcohol (N=186) and their family members in Nairobi, Kenya. The study found out that EE had a predictive value R 2 = .348 and was statistically significant at p=0.000<0.05. While hostility was found to have an inverse relationship with relapse (β=-.133), criticism was found to predict relapse at R 2 =.282 and over-involvement at R 2 =.471%. The study concluded that high levels of family EE were a significant in predicting relapse of an individual dependent on alcohol during the recovery process.