| Three groups of substance abusers were compared on self-perceived levels of family health. One hundred fourteen alcohol, cocaine, and polydrug addicts were sampled regarding their perceptions of their family's health in an effort to determine whether differences in family functioning exist across drugs of choice. Subjects were drawn from three private inpatient treatment centers and all participants completed a demographic questionnaire and three family scales: the Self Report Family Inventory (SFI), the Family of Origin Scale (FOS), and the Worthington Autonomy Scale (WAS).; The data were analyzed using a MANOVA, a Discriminant Function Analysis, and a Chi-Square Statistic. Results of the primary analyses revealed no significant differences between the groups on any of the family factors. These findings lend empirical support to the current practice of creating similar treatment goals for families of all groups of substance abusers.; In a quadratic analysis, a Classification Function of the Discriminant Analysis was able to correctly classify 86% of the cocaine users, 64% of the alcohol users, and 60% of the polydrug users. Results reflect greater variability in scores on the family assessments among polydrug addicts and alcoholics as compared to the cocaine addicts.; Significant differences were reported on nine demographic variables using a Chi-Square statistic. Those variables reported as significantly associated were: sex, age, ethnicity, occupation, income, marital status, length of experience with drug of choice, dollars spent per month on drug of choice, and route of administration. Results of the Chi-Square statistic support the notion that the alcohol, cocaine, and polydrug groups are distinct from one another with respect to these individual characteristics. Future research in this area should take into account the limitations of this study in an effort to further discriminate between these groups of drug users. Timely data collection, separate groups for those users who choose to smoke versus snort cocaine, and data collection in both public and private treatment facilities are some of the limitations to be addressed in future research. |
