AN ENQUIRY IN TO THE PERSONAL MALADJUSTMENT PATTERN AMONG CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLIC PARENTS
Dr.Hari S.Chandran
Alcoholism is matter of serious concern, not confined to any group, culture or country. Universally it creates professional, social, financial, legal, medical, psychological, and familial problems. The cost of alcoholism to the society is staggering by any calculations. Lost working days, accidents and related disability, family disrupts and resulting juvenile problems, and direct medical complications of alcohol abuse add up to a significant proportion of loss to nations” economy and well being. Alcoholism thus becomes a complex phenomenon deserving attention from deferent angles.
Problem drinking within a family can lead to many types of stress and hard ships for family members. Increasing social isolation due to alcoholism is difficult for children to cope up. They behave increasingly withdrawn form peer group activities. Financial hardships become a factor and reductions are made to general standard of living. Physical hardships are seen either violence towards family members or in destruction of household things.
Family members especially spouse may be subjected to emotional deprivation and may perceive drinking as a form of rejection. This in turn causes the drinker to become increasingly preoccupied and plays a diminished role in family life and affairs.
Glassner and Loughlin (1987) emphasised on three aspects of parent-child relationships that are studied in alcoholics” families; basic care, consistency of expectations, and communications. Children find it difficult to cope with parental unpredictability or with unexplained withdrawal and sudden change in mood and temperament.
Submitted to ICSSR, for General fellowship.
Children may suffer from physical and emotional neglect. Since all the family’s energies are focused on the drinker, children are often neglected and their individual contributions go unacknowledged. This may result in acting out behavior, aggression, bed- wetting, taunting, anxiety, withdrawal and isolation that in turn can increase the pressure on non-drinking parents. Another important problem is that children of alcoholics lack a satisfactory role model for their own behavior. Hence, the children represent an important high-risk group both because of their proneness to problem drinking during child hood and their proneness to problems in later life. Hence, the tragedy of alcoholism lies in its detrimental effects on future generation. Alcoholism of the individual affects not only the family but also even the basic fabric of the society. Alcohol causes poverty leading to crimes and prostitution that in turn ends up in the break down of any society’s integrity and existence.
Studies have reveled that alcoholics” families acquire certain typical coping strategies within the family system (Orford et. al 1975). Children take up age inappropriate activities to maintain the domestic harmony, become a support to the non-drinking parent, and hence exposed to moral, emotional, and financial dilemmas not appropriate to their age, experience or understanding. This invariably evokes further stress, feelings of hopelessness, withdrawnness and depression in alcoholics. Thus, a vicious cycle of alcohol, stress and maladjustment is found to exist
Dr.Hari S.Chandran
Alcoholism is matter of serious concern, not confined to any group, culture or country. Universally it creates professional, social, financial, legal, medical, psychological, and familial problems. The cost of alcoholism to the society is staggering by any calculations. Lost working days, accidents and related disability, family disrupts and resulting juvenile problems, and direct medical complications of alcohol abuse add up to a significant proportion of loss to nations” economy and well being. Alcoholism thus becomes a complex phenomenon deserving attention from deferent angles.
Problem drinking within a family can lead to many types of stress and hard ships for family members. Increasing social isolation due to alcoholism is difficult for children to cope up. They behave increasingly withdrawn form peer group activities. Financial hardships become a factor and reductions are made to general standard of living. Physical hardships are seen either violence towards family members or in destruction of household things.
Family members especially spouse may be subjected to emotional deprivation and may perceive drinking as a form of rejection. This in turn causes the drinker to become increasingly preoccupied and plays a diminished role in family life and affairs.
Glassner and Loughlin (1987) emphasised on three aspects of parent-child relationships that are studied in alcoholics” families; basic care, consistency of expectations, and communications. Children find it difficult to cope with parental unpredictability or with unexplained withdrawal and sudden change in mood and temperament.
Submitted to ICSSR, for General fellowship.
Children may suffer from physical and emotional neglect. Since all the family’s energies are focused on the drinker, children are often neglected and their individual contributions go unacknowledged. This may result in acting out behavior, aggression, bed- wetting, taunting, anxiety, withdrawal and isolation that in turn can increase the pressure on non-drinking parents. Another important problem is that children of alcoholics lack a satisfactory role model for their own behavior. Hence, the children represent an important high-risk group both because of their proneness to problem drinking during child hood and their proneness to problems in later life. Hence, the tragedy of alcoholism lies in its detrimental effects on future generation. Alcoholism of the individual affects not only the family but also even the basic fabric of the society. Alcohol causes poverty leading to crimes and prostitution that in turn ends up in the break down of any society’s integrity and existence.
Studies have reveled that alcoholics” families acquire certain typical coping strategies within the family system (Orford et. al 1975). Children take up age inappropriate activities to maintain the domestic harmony, become a support to the non-drinking parent, and hence exposed to moral, emotional, and financial dilemmas not appropriate to their age, experience or understanding. This invariably evokes further stress, feelings of hopelessness, withdrawnness and depression in alcoholics. Thus, a vicious cycle of alcohol, stress and maladjustment is found to exist
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