Spiritual Well-Being and General Mental Health among Alcoholics and Non-Alcoholics

The present study was conducted to assess, compare and examine the inter relationship between the level of spiritual well-being and general mental health of alcoholics and non-alcoholics. The age of the sample population ranged between 20 and 60 years (M=42.4). The sample was consisted of 60 alcoholics and 60 non-alcoholics drawn from three districts in Kerala. The two groups were identical in the aspects of age, educational qualification and socio-economic status. General Health Questionnaire-28 (Goldberg, 1978), Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-sp (Bredle et al., 1990) and Audit questionnaire for measuring screen for alcohol misuse (Saunder et al., 1993) were used for assessment. Data were analysed using independent sample t-test and Pearson's product moment correlational analysis. Results revealed that the group of alcoholics and non-alcoholics differs significantly on the level of spiritual well-being and general mental health indicating the group of non-alcoholics possessed better level of spiritual well-being and general mental health as compared to alcoholics. The level of spiritual well-being is significantly correlated with the general mental health of the participants and both the spiritual well-being and general mental health is inversely correlated with level of alcohol dependence.