PREDICTORS OF SELF-ESTEEM AMONG MEMBERS OF WOMEN-FOR-SOBRIETY

One goal of alcohol treatment for women is enhancement of their feelin gs about themselves, and a treatment approach that explicitly addresse s this challenge is Women For Sobriety (WFS). This paper reports on th e results of the first WFS membership survey, conducted in 1991 (n = 6 00; response rate = 73%). Results were similar to those from longitudi nal research which found about a 20% improvement in self esteem in the first year of sobriety. Significant predictors of self esteem include d endorsement of the WFS programmatic beliefs and practices, use of th ose beliefs and practices in every day life, disbelief in AA's first s tep (powerless over alcohol), and length of time in WFS and length of time sober.