1M. Sc. Nursing,
2Assistant Professor,
3Associate Professor,
*Corresponding Author Email: elizramya@gmail.com
Alcoholism is a progressive disease that impairs the psychological, emotional and physical health of both the alcoholic and his family. Alcoholism has been labeled as a family disease because its effects lead to dysfunctional roles and behaviours of the alcoholics and their family member. An alcoholic husband affects the family in numerous ways and their responsibility has to be taken over by the wife. The wife, in such situations of handling the husband and the family, sometimes falls weak but in some cases stands strong. Mental health and resilience of family members of individuals with alcohol dependence affect their ability to cope with stress, maintain emotional well-being, and to positively adapt to their difficult life circumstances. Resilience has been described as a measure of stress-coping ability and sustained competence under stress. Higher the resilience, stronger the coping capacity.
To compare the resilience factors between wives of alcoholics and wives of non alcoholics.
The research design adopted for this study was comparative cross sectional design. The setting was St. John's Medical College Hospital, Bangalore. A sample of 60 wives of alcoholics and 60 wives of non alcoholics were identified using purposive sampling technique. A modified mini screen scale (MMS) was used to rule out mental illness and the subjects found mentally healthy were taken to collect baseline variables. Resilience scale for adult was used to assess resilience. The collected data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics.
The present study revealed that the wives of alcoholics had a lower resilience than wives of non alcoholics and the difference was statistically significant at p <0.001. Analysis of the subscales also showed significant difference in perception of future and family cohesion at p<0.05.
The study showed that there is a significant difference in the resilience factors between wives of alcoholics and non alcoholics. Thereby the knowledge of a patient's resilience factors is effective in providing a quality care. The findings of the study will serve as a base in teaching the students to plan and give and overall support to both the patient and the caregivers, in preparing prospective nurses to deal with the psychological aspects of the illness.
Alcoholism, resilience, wives of alcoholics
