Family Roles 1
Running head: Family roles
Family Roles in Dysfunctional Families
Kimberly Carl
SOW5712
Allgood
March 2, 2008
Family Roles in Dysfunctional Families
S. Wegscheider’s Role Theory describes children from alcoholic and substance abusing families as taking on roles from within that family. Roles such as the Hero, the Mascot (both positive roles), the Scapegoat, and the Lost-Child (both negative roles), allow children to take on specialized roles within the family that may affect the rest of their lives(Van Wormer & Davis, 2008). While Van Wormer and Davis caution about sticking to them without criticism and skepticism, they do state that they are usual in allowing the family to connect to something and define themselves within the family systems role.
In their article, “Abusive Drinking in Adult Youths”, Fischer and Wampler describe how children who have taken on these roles may continue to play them in their own adulthood lives and how they will be affected either negatively or positively depending on the role they took on. They survived college students from a university to understand their own concept of the role they took as a child and whether they came from an alcohol dependent family or not. Their hypothesis stated that people who stated they had a positive roles would have experienced less dysfunction from within their family and people who identified themselves as having negative roles would say they experienced more dysfunction (Fisher & Wampler, 1994). They also hypothesized that those who stated they experienced negative roles would experience their own dysfunction and alcohol dependence in their adulthood (Fisher & Wampler, 1994).
Through their analysis, they found that more women found themselves within the positive roles and men found themselves in the negative. However, they also found thatmen were less affected by the dysfunctional of their families, whereas women who were in the negative positions were more affected by their families and therefore, often became alcohol dependent in their adulthood (Fisher & Wampler, 1994). However, this seemed to be untrue for people who identified themselves in the Mascot role as children, possibly because men and women take on the role differently and may be seen differently by their families (Fisher & Wampler, 1994).
As a result of their findings, the authors raised another question. “Does abusive drinking result from the general emotional distress of being raised in a dysfunctional family or more from the models provided by important relatives?” (Fischer & Wampler, 1994, 477). They also questioned whether the previous one could be reversed to question whether the child alcohol depency causes the family dysfunction. In response, they stated that the research they previously completed as well as research previously completed stated that it was more often the family causing the dysfunction and not the other direction (Fischer & Wampler, 1994).
A major implication of the study is that the roles assigned to children may show reason why the person has come into therapy. Heroes, for example, may have problems because they have been putting all their focus on keeping the family together and the burden has become too much for them to handle (Fischer & Wampler, 1994). Other implications which should also be studied, I believe, is the roles taken on by siblings, both as seen from the sibling and the person being studied.
I believe that the study they have completed is interesting in the fact that the way children perceive themselves both as children and as adults effects the way they develop throughout their lives. Fischer and Wampler’s study seeks to understand how those role perceptions play in the child’s development into a substance abuser themselves. This is important for therapists to understand in order thoroughly understand the client, where they have come from, how they perceive themselves, and how the family plays into that role.
REFERENCES
Fischer, Judith L., & Richard S. Wampler. “Abusive Drinking in Young Adults: Personality Type and Family Role as Moderators of Family-of-Origin Influences” (1994). Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 56, No. 2, pp. 469-479.
Van Wormer, K., & Davis, D. (2008). Addiction treatment: A strengths perspective.Bemont: Thomson Brooks/Cole.