Stress and coping strategies among spouse of alcoholics

Alcoholism is one of the major health and social problems all over the world. Women are emotionally more open than men to the concerns of their loved ones and therefore experience more distress in events that occur to that person and are therefore more vulnerable. This has been considered to be part of the chronic stress associated with the traditional role functioning of women. A descriptive study was carried out to assess the stress and coping among spouse of alcoholics at village Chapa Ram Singh and Lalka Nagar of district Amritsar, Punjab. 60 spouses of alcoholics was selected by convenience sampling technique based on who fills the inclusion criteria. The results of the study reveals that 47 (78.3%) have moderate stress, 13 (21.7%) spouses of alcoholics have mild stress with an average and SD of 21.02±4.634 among spouse of alcoholics. The coping strategies among spouse of alcoholics, shows that 48 (80%) sometimes use coping strategies and 12 (20%) often uses coping strategies with mean and SD of 24.48±2.19 among spouse of alcoholics. The result shows that ‘r’ value – 0.324, indicates that weak positive correlation between level of stress and coping strategies among spouse of alcoholics. The study concluded that it is essential to develop certain measures to treat an alcoholics by individual therapy, family therapy, group therapy, occupational therapy and some of the diversional activities such as music therapy, yoga, meditation and relaxation techniques may contribute to an alcohol free society.