Psychological symptomatology in spouses and adult children of alcoholics: an examination of the hypothesized personality characteristics of codependency

Abstract

The concept of codependency has been advanced to explain certain psychological traits purported to be characteristic of spouses and adult children of alcoholics. To test the validity of this hypothesized syndrome, 97 female subjects living with either an alcoholic (SA), a psychiatric patient (SP), or dentistry patient (SD) were studied; approximately 50% of subjects had a positive family history (FH+) for alcoholism. All subjects were administered an extensive battery of psychological tests. The results revealed significantly greater levels of psychological symptomatology among the SA and FH+ subjects, in part consistent with the hypothesized symptomatology of codependency.