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Adult Children of Alcoholics: Treatment outcomes as related to borderline personality disorder diagnosis

Laurie Mary Hoover, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was the investigation of differential treatment outcomes for adult children of alcoholics who met the Borderline Personality Disorder criteria and those adult children who did not meet the criteria. Secondary purposes included the investigation of the association of coping styles, roles adopted as children, and alcohol use/abuse with treatment outcome of participants. Two adult children of alcoholics groups were used as sources for data collection. Treatment validity checks revealed no differences between the two groups on the major variables under study. Slight differences were found on some of the demographic variables. At the first group session participants were given a demographic information questionnaire, a goal attainment scale, and measures of borderline personality disorder (BPD), coping behaviors, alcohol use/abuse, and children's roles to complete. Post treatment measures consisted of assessing goal attainment level and a treatment satisfaction questionnaire. Of 124 adult children of alcoholics participating in the study 88 successfully completed all assessments. Six null hypotheses were generated, four were rejected at the.05 significance level. Treatment outcome does not differ based on whether adult children of alcoholics meet the BPD criteria or not as no difference was discovered in overall goal attainment. Additionally, neither alcohol use/abuse nor assumed roles differentially influenced treatment outcome. Differences were discovered in treatment outcome based on coping behaviors. In addition, a greater proportion of adult children met the BPD criteria than would be expected when compared with a hospitalized population. Differences were also uncovered in roles assumed and coping styles between adult children of alcoholics who met or did not meet the BPD criteria. Assumed roles, alcohol use/abuse, and coping behaviors differentiated between adult children of alcoholics who met the BPD criteria from those who did not meet the BPD criteria.

Subject Area

Psychology

Recommended Citation

Hoover, Laurie Mary, "Adult Children of Alcoholics: Treatment outcomes as related to borderline personality disorder diagnosis" (1989). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9004677.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9004677

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