Sex role attitudes among female alcoholics : changes due to an assertiveness group intervention

• Main Author: Roth, Laurie
• Other Authors: Gray, Liz
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Women alcoholics > Attitudes; Sex role; Assertiveness training
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1957/34572

The first purpose of this study was to determine if the effects of experiencing an assertiveness treatment group influenced the perceived attitudes toward sex roles in alcoholic women in aftercare. It was expected that alcoholic women in aftercare who had received an assertiveness group intervention, with an emphasis on awareness building, practice of assertiveness verbal responses, and sex-role exploration, would demonstrate lower masculinity scores on the BEM pre and post test (Bern, 1981) than a control group who had received usual treatment. The second purpose of this study was to determine among demographic variables and alcoholic women in aftercare, if there was a difference on the BEM pre and post test scores, among experimental and control groups. The following demographic variables were assessed: age, religiosity, ethnic background, income level, marital status, employment history, and length of treatment. There was a total of 59 women who participated in the study, ten of whom dropped out. The study was conducted across five treatment centers in Oregon. The study settings were all alcohol treatment centers which included aftercare components for women. The instrument utilized for the study was the BEM Sex Role Inventory developed by Sandra Bem in 1981. There was one experimental group which received three assertiveness sessions, and one control group which received three standard aftercare treatment sessions, in place of usual treatment. This process was repeated five times among 29 experimental and 27 control subjects. The treatment consisted of three one hour sessions which addressed three aspects of assertiveness. Data indicated that there was strong evidence that the attitude change reflected in the masculine score showed significantly more assertiveness for the experimental group than the attitude change reflected in the masculine score or the control group. There was no significant evidence of difference for the total, feminine, and demographic scores. === Graduation date: 1996