Gender aspects of affiliation with Alcoholics Anonymous after treatment

摘要

Studies incorporating gender aspects of post-treatment affiliation with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) have often focused on meeting attendance, disregarding behavioral indicators of affiliation. This article describes meeting attendance and affiliative behaviors in a Swedish treatment sample of 112 men and 40 women, and also identifies predictors of high affiliation. While no gender differences were found for meeting attendance, more women than men reported that they had called an AA member for help, had experienced a spiritual awakening, and read AA literature after treatment. Bivariate analyses identified a treatment goal of abstinence as predictive of high affiliation for both sexes, and in a multivariate context, female gender, a treatment goal of abstinence and pre-treatment AA exposure increased the likelihood of high affiliation (R~2 = .31,).. Findings suggest that the affiliation process differs by gender, but reflect study methodology and Swedish AA culture, so that these issues need further exploration,.