부산대학교 도서관

Summary: It is not uncommon that problem drinkers experience some form of psychological and/or social ailment associated with their alcohol use. More specifically, some problem drinkers have hampered interpersonal and/or intrapersonal skills, which may contribute to damaged social relationships. Fortunately, there are a number of different forms of psychosocial alcohol treatments that focus, more or less, on relationship difficulties. The purpose of this study was to assess the utility of matching individuals to alcohol treatments using discrepant assessments of relationship functioning across subject and partner as measured by the Dyadic Adjustment Subset Scale (DASS). Based upon the principles of Equity Theory and specific components of the two experimental treatments, it was hypothesized that individuals experiencing equitable relationships and treated in Cognitive Behavioral treatment as well as individuals experiencing inequitable relationships and treated in the Community Reinforcement Approach would experience better drinking outcomes relative to those individuals mismatched to treatment. A MANCOVA analysis provided partial support regarding the study matching hypotheses. Specifically, individuals experiencing an inequitable relationship at baseline and treated in CRA were, on average, drinking the fewest drinks per drinking day. Additionally, an ANOVA procedure was performed to test whether the relationship functioning discrepancy score measure changed from the baseline to 12-month follow-up period. Again, results indicated that those individuals experiencing an inequitable relationship at baseline and treated in CRA showed the most improvement. Clinical implications, study limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.