FAMILY SUPPORT AS A PROTECTIVE MECHANISM AGAINST STIGMA-RELATED PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS AMONG SPOUSES OF INDIVIDUALS WITH ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE

Abstract

The families of alcohol dependent are often faced with a lot of psychological distress, a situation that is often enhanced by the social stigma and limited support mechanisms. Even though the negative mental-health impacts of stigma in caregiving groups have been reported in the extant literature, empirical studies of protective processes capable of mitigating its effects have been limited, especially in collectivist cultures. Based on this, the current research study investigated the mediating effect of family support on the relationship between perceived social stigma and psychological distress in spouses of alcohol dependence patients. Data were collected on 300 spouses who were selected in the rehabilitation and outpatient addiction treatment centers in Faisalabad, Pakistan, in order to conform to a cross-sectional correlational study design. The Affiliate Stigma Scale, the Perceived Social Support-Family Scale, and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 were given to the respondents. Later analyses included descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, linear regression, and regression-based mediation analyses. The findings showed that the perceived social stigmatization had a significant correlation with psychological distress, and family support had a significant effect on better mental-health outcomes. Mediation analysis showed a complete mediation of the relationship between perceived social stigma and psychological distress: the direct impact of stigma was no longer significant when family support was added to the model. Such results suggest that the psychological burden that can be described as the result of stigma is mostly transferred through impaired family support. The research highlights the crucial defensive role of family support toward decreasing stigma-induced psychological distress in spouses of alcohol dependent persons. The results support the urgency of the inclusion of the family-centred and support-enhancing interventions into the addiction treatment and mental-health services, specifically in collectivist societies.