Psychological risk factors of social maladjustment and protective factors in alcohol-dependent women

The paper analyzes the psychological characteristics of alcohol-dependent women, including the particularities of subjective psychological symptomatic status, psychological well-being, motivation, social desirability and self-esteem. We tested the hypothesis that: 1) alcohol-dependent women expressed less motivation of social desirability and expressed more subjectively perceived symptoms in comparison with normal; 2) alcohol-dependent women have lower levels of well-being, self-esteem and level of aspiration in comparison with the conventional norm. The experimental group consisted of 46 women (mean age 45 years) who are dependent on alcohol. The comparison group included 33 women with normal behavior who are not dependent on alcohol (the average age 33 years). We have found that a statistically significant contribution to the classification of women in a group of alcohol-dependent is made by low self-esteem, high levels of anxiety, low real self-evaluation of their success in business, willpower and mental health, low ideal self-evaluation in terms of the happiness and mind, achievable self-evaluation in terms of the happiness and visual attractiveness, the average level of the personal growth as basic component of well-being