Marital Adjustment, Stress, and Mental Health of Wives of Alcoholics and Non-Alcoholics

Alcoholism, also known as alcohol addiction, is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships and social functioning. Alcoholism has a negative effect on the spouse of an alcoholic. The spouse may have feeling of hatred, self-pity, avoidance of social contact. They may suffer from exhaustion and become mentally and physically ill. Therefore, this study was aimed at studying marital adjustment, stress, and mental health of wives of alcoholics and non-alcoholics (NA). In the present study, marital adjustment questionnaire, life stress scale, and mental health inventory were administered on 60 female subjects, 30 wives of alcoholics and 30 wives of NA, from ESI Hospital and Safdarjang Hospital, Delhi. Their age ranges from 25 to 50 years. The t-test was used to analyze the obtained data. The marital adjustment was found poor in the wives of alcoholics than the wives of NAs. There was no significant difference between the wives of alcoholics and NAs on stress. The mental health was found to be poorer in the wives of alcoholics when compared to the wives of NAs.