Do as I Say, Not as I Do? An Examination of the Relationship Between Partner Behaviors and Help Seeking for Alcohol Related Issues

ABSTRACT

Background: Although there are a number of risks associated with problematic alcohol use, the proportion of people who seek help for alcohol-related issues is alarmingly low. Objective: This study investigated the potential social influences that are associated with alcohol-related help seeking, including perceived partner support, descriptive and injunctive subjective norms, and marital satisfaction. Methods: Participants included 133 individuals (50% female, 48% male, and 2% did not report) recruited nationwide through both print and electronic methods. Data were collected in an online survey in 2013. Respondents were 77% Caucasian, 16% African-American, 2% Asian, 2% American Indian, and 1% Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, with a mean age of 38 years (SD = 11.93). Data were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression. Results: Results suggested that when considered independently, perceived partner support, injunctive social norms, and closest friend's level of drinking were significantly associated with help seeking behavior, while marital satisfaction was not. Results further indicated that examining support and norms together accounted for increased variance in help seeking over examining the variables separately. Significant interactions were found between gender and acceptance of drinking behavior, which suggested that acceptance of drinking behavior was important for men's help seeking but not for women's, and between positive support and acceptance, which indicated that the role of support varied by level of acceptance for both genders. Conclusion: Overall, this study suggests that social influences play an important role in a person's decision to seek help for alcohol related issues.

KEYWORDS:

• Alcohol
• help seeking
• relationship
• marriage
• partner

Glossary

• Descriptive social norm: A descriptive norm occurs when the perceived behavior of others prescribes an approved behavior; for example, when a teenager sees others drinking at a party.

• Injunctive social norm: An injunctive norm occurs when the perceived expectations of others prescribe an approved behavior; for example, when friends apply peer pressure on a teenager to drink.

• Negative social support: Negative support consists of behaviors that indicate dissatisfaction and negative attitudes towards another.

• Positive social support: Positive support consists of behaviors in which a person provides constructive feedback and encouragement to another.

• Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB; Ajzen, 1991): The TPB posits that one's behavior is determined by 1) social influences, such as subjective norms and close relationships (e.g. my wife wants me to quit drinking), 2) personal influences, such as one's attitudes towards a behavior (e.g. quitting drinking would be good for me) and 3) one's perceived behavioral control (e.g. I'm not going to be able to quit drinking).

Acknowledgment

I would like to sincerely thank my graduate advisor, Dr. James Cordova, for his invaluable guidance in preparing this manuscript.

Declaration of interest

The author reports no conflicts of interest. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Notes

1 Although marital satisfaction did not evidence a significant main effect, the researchers opted to test for interaction effects between satisfaction and significant variables in later models, given the theoretical possibility that this process would look different at varying levels of satisfaction. These effects were also not significant.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

C. J. Eubanks Fleming

Dr. C. J. Eubanks Fleming obtained her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Elon University in Burlington, NC. Her current research areas include couples and relationship issues, treatment engagement and help-seeking behavior for mental health concerns, and understanding risks for and effects of specific psychological conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder and substance use disorder.