Relationship of sociodemographic and drinking variables to differentiated subgroups of alcoholics.

The results suggest that the sociodemographic variables of age, living arrangements, number of dependents, the drinking variable, and the client's perception of the type of drinker he is are the most strongly related to the derived typology. The exact relationship of these variables, as well as the variables that were moderately related to the typology, is not apparent. There is a pattern, however, that appears to run through the categories of the classification. The evidence suggests that for alcoholics to be in their prime earning years, living with their spouses, perceiving themselves as alcoholic, possessing marketable skills, and a recent history of abstinence seems to increase the likelihood of psychological need satisfaction. The antithesis--to be alcoholic, less than 30 or older than 50 years old, living by oneself or with parents, perceiving oneself as a social or problem drinker, and possessing a recent history of drinking--seems to decrease the likelihood of psychological need satisfaction. There seems to be a relationship between drinking behavior and psychological need satisfaction. As a group, the members of Clusters Two, Three, and Four are unable to abstain for longer than a week; Clusters Two and Three both possess physiological problems of adjustment. The members of Clusters One and Five tend to be able to abstain for longer periods. Cluster One is devoid of physiological difficulties, whereas Five has borderline problems. The physiological subscale of the Human Service Scale assesses the absence of symptoms associated with poor health (Realges & Butler, 1976). It appears that aberrant drinking does not necessarily result in self-perceived physiological-health complaints. These results are at variance with the belief that ethanol ingestion by an alcoholic and the resulting pathological complications are the predominant difficulties encountered by these persons. Thus it seems to us that a distraught life situation (that is, the lack of social and demographic assets--marriage, education, and so on) contributes to self-perceived severity of psychological need deprivation and not solely aberrant drinking. Therefore, in terms of recovery from alcoholism, these results argue against a unidimensional approach toward the treatment of alcoholism; that is, an approach that focuses solely on the drinking as "the" problem. A more strategic approach would include a thorough medical, psychiatric, psychological, social and vocational evaluation of the alcoholic's life situation, which in turn would permit mobilizing the efforts of a multidisciplinary team whose goal would be to maximize the resources and enhance the life situation of the alcoholic. It is hoped that the results of this study serve to increase our understanding of those factors that influence aberrant drinking.