Employing probability samples from the Ontario Health Survey Supplement and a community of Native Ontario reserve residents this study compared and contrasted Natives and Non-natives determinants of drug and alcohol use onset. Proportional Hazards techniques identified factors associated with the risk and timing of onset of substance use (alcohol and illicit drugs) for both cultural groups and special attention was paid to the role of family background characteristics as precursors to early alcohol and drug-use onset. The multivariate results reveal that for both Natives and Non-natives alike and considering both drinking and drug use onset together age cohort predominates as a risk factor with youngest groups at greatest risk and especially in the case of drug use other than alcohol. Males also exhibit consistently higher risks of both alcohol and other substance use and this is true to a greater extent for Non-natives. For the model of drug use timing age of alcohol use onset is the second best predictor for Natives although its effect is still apparent albeit weaker in the case of Non-natives. The results concerning age at first regular drinking lend further support to previous findings that alcohol use is a powerful predisposing factor to the use of illicit substances. However the evident cultural disparity in the predictive power of this measure also suggests that Natives may lag behind the general population with respect to recently observed shifts in the pattern of substance use progression (i.e. away from alcohol use as a necessary precondition to illicit use of other drugs). As for family characteristics a number of factors emerge as determinants of risk but appear to depend at least in part on the cultural group and the substance under consideration: namely parental substance abuse paternal history of depression quality of parental relations parental occupational background and sexual abuse during childhood. Overall the findings point to the salience of family background in affecting early onset drinking and drug use behaviors well-recognized to have potentially adverse mental and physical health consequences as well as negative social outcomes. (authors)

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Determinants of the Risk and Timing of Alcohol and Illicit Drug Use Onset Among Natives and Non-natives: Similarities and Differences

Marital estrangement, positive feelings toward spouses, and locus of control among a national sample of 323 female counselors who were either married or formerly married to alcohol-abusing or to non-alcohol-abusing male partners were examined. Statistically significant differences between groups were found.

Marital Estrangement, Positive Feelings toward Partners, and Locus of Control: Female Counselors Married to Alcohol-Abusing and Non-Alcohol-Abusing Spouses.

Using data collected from a Native Canadian community by Embree (1993), we examine the influence of personal and family background characteristics on satisfaction with spousal relationships, both legal marriages and cohabitations. Of special interest are the quality of relationships with parents while growing up, alcohol abuse by the parent(s), and the experience of sexual abuse during childhood. Personal traits such as age, sex, and gender role attitudes and the respondent's own drinking behavior are also considered. Path analytic techniques model both the direct effects of independent variables on relationship satisfaction as well as the role of personal consumption of alcohol as an intervening variable in level of satisfaction with a relationship. The results of the analysis indicate that personal consumption of alcohol and the experience of sexual abuse during childhood are the best direct predictors of level of satisfaction with the current relationship, with higher alcohol consumption and experience of sexual abuse related to lower satisfaction. Age also has a significant direct, though smaller, positive influence on relationship satisfaction. Sexual abuse and the respondent's sex are also linked to level of satisfaction through personal alcohol consumption. With personal alcohol use, both the respondent's sex and the experience of sexual abuse during childhood have a significant effect, with males and those sexually abused as children reporting higher levels of alcohol consumption. The socialization explanation of the intergenerational consequences of parental behavior argues that parental role models are primary to the future family formation behavior of children. Consistent with this hypothesis, the findings concerning sexual abuse, in particular, as a predictor of both personal alcohol use and relationship satisfaction seem to underscore the importance of antecedent family characteristics in influencing later adjustment to adult roles and responsibilities.

Family background characteristics and relationship satisfaction in a native community in Canada.

In einer Befragung von je zwanzig Ehemannern alkoholkranker und depressiver Frauen sollte erfast werden, inwieweit die Sicht der familiaren Probleme beider Probandengruppen vergleichbar sind, bzw. auf welchen Dimensionen sie divergieren. Bezogen auf einen Zeitraum von drei bis vier Wochen vor Hospitalisierung der Patientinnen ergaben sich keine Gruppenunterschiede hinsichtlich des Ausmases an Verhaltensanderungen bei den Frauen und keine Unterschiede hinsichtlich des Schweregrades von Problemen im Leben der ubrigen Familienmitglieder. Bei Fragen nach dem subjektiven Erleben der jeweiligen familiaren Bedingungen ging aus den Angaben der Ehemanner alkoholkranker Frauen hervor, das sie sich von vergleichbar geschilderten Gegebenheiten durchgangig, insbesondere aber im interpersonellen Bereich starker belastet fuhlen als die Partner der depressiven Frauen. Letztere berichteten eher von resignativen Gefuhlen, was sich zum Teil als altersabhangig erwies. Es wird vermutet, das die Ergebnisse auf unterschiedlich attribuierte Verantwortlichkeiten fur die Probleme der Patientinnen und ihre Folgen zuruckzufuhren sind.

Belastungsfaktoren in den Familien alkoholkranker und depressiver Frauen aus der Sicht der Ehemänner

Sex and disability: A selected bibliography.

Alcoholic husbands and their wives generally agreed that the major aspects of marital happiness dealt with the quality of interpersonal relations "Undesirable vices (excessive gambling, drinking, etc)" ranked first as contributing to marital unhappiness while their absence was ranked 275 by the husbands and 95 by the wives as contributing to marital happiness The elimination of undesirable habits may resolve much marital misery but it does not necessarily follow that as unhappiness decreases happiness will increase

W Wilson

Papers

Determinants of marital happiness and unhappiness rated by alcoholics and their wives.