Self Esteem Among Children of Alcoholic Abstinent and Relapsed Employees

Abstract

Introduction: Alcoholism is one of the ancient and complex habits of disorders known in the history of humankind.  The impact of alcoholism is not only seems to be on the individual per se, but there is large extent on families as well as on their children.  There is a general consensus that, children of alcoholics constitute a “High risk” population, children tend to model their parents in their upbringing.  Children are susceptible for low self-esteem, and   psychological wellbeing impacting in their future adulthood.

Aim: To assess Self-esteem among the children of Alcoholic Abstinent and Relapsed Employees in an Industrial Setting.

Materials and methods: The sample consisted of 30 children of alcoholic abstinent and 30 children of Alcoholic relapsed employees from large public sector undertaking, Bangalore. The sample was selected on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Socio-demographic data sheet and Culture free Self-esteem Inventory were administered to the children.

Results: Children of alcoholic in the abstinent group have found higher mean score as compared to the Children of alcoholic relapsed group in all the domain except one.  In the domains like General self-esteem, Social/peer related items, Academic/School related self –esteem items and Parent/home related self–esteem items children of abstinent groups have faired better, however in one domain i.e. lie items/items indicting defensiveness the relapsed group have higher score. However which was statistically not significant.

Conclusion: It was evident that there is much better self-esteem in children of alcoholic abstinent than children of relapsed employees.  There is a strong need to focus on shaping the career of the children and boost their self-esteem by providing psychosocial intervention and other therapies.

Keywords: Children of alcoholics, Self-esteem, Parenting, Psychosocial intervention.