EFFECT OF THE SOCIAL-ENVIRONMENT ON ALCOHOL INVOLVEMENT AND SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING PRIOR TO ALCOHOLISM-TREATMENT

This article describes a conceptual model developed to explain abusive use of alcohol and reports results of an initial test of that concept ualization. General social support is hypothesized to affect the level of subjective well-being, while alcohol-relevant social support affec ts the degree of alcohol involvement. A cross-sectional test of two mo dels derived from this formulation was made using data from 148 alcoho lic clients entering treatment at a private non-profit psychiatric fac ility. Results indicate that a model in which no direct relationship b etween alcohol involvement and subjective well-being is specified prov ides a more parsimonious explanation of interrelationships at the time of treatment entry. Alcohol involvement is explained by alcohol-relev ant affiliative and instrumental support (albeit weakly), and subjecti ve well-being is explained by general affiliative and instrumental soc ial support. There is virtually no interrelationship between alcohol i nvolvement and subjective well-being once the support variables are ta ken into account. The findings indicate that treatment should more oft en incorporate others from a client's social network, using significan t others first to provide general social support and later alcohol-rel evant support as well. Further analyses involving samples with more he terogeneity in levels of social investment and exploring the utility o f these variables for treatment matching categorization decisions are warranted.