Life-meaningful orientations and coping styles in women from dysfunctional families.

Introduction: The severity of psychological disturbances and mental disorders in adults who grew up in alcoholic families make it extremely urgent to develop effective psychotherapeutic programs for them. Besides, the topic of maintaining women's health is one of the priorities of modern Medicine and psychology. Objectives: This study aims to assess the psychological effects of the program «Adult children of alcoholics» (Twelve-step program) for Russian women who grew up in alcoholic families. Methods: The study involved 80 women who grew up in alcoholic families aged 18 to 44. Participants performed the following assessment: "Purpose-in-Life Test" (Leontiev, 2000), "The Coping Strategy Indicator" (Amirkhan, 1990), The Reflexivity Test (Karpov, 2003), The Test of the Personal Self-conception (Stolin, Panteleev, 1998), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, et al., 1983), Beck Depression Inventory. Results: Women attend the twelve-step program for more than 2.5 years differ from women attended less than 6 sessions of the program as well as women grew up in prosperous families by higher rates of «Problem Solving» coping strategy (23,91±3,28 vs 19,34±5,67 vs 19,26±6,48; P=0,001); coping strategy «Seeking Social Support» (24,64±3,44 vs 19,41±5,76 vs 20,70±8,09; P=0,006); meaningfulness of life (Purpose-in-Life Test) (27,83±5,17 vs 21,24±7,53 vs 24,04±7,22; P=0,009). They are less likely to use such coping strategy as «Avoidance» (16,55±3,53 vs 21,86±5,29 vs 19,04±6,24; P=0.001). They have low anxiety (48,42±5,65 vs 54,07±7,12 vs 52,81±9,01; p=0,006) and low depression (10,92±5,52 vs 25,90±16,70 vs 16,33±12,35; P=0,003). Conclusions: The results convincingly prove the effectiveness of f twelve-step program in Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]