World view change in adult children of Alcoholics/Al-Anon self-help groups: reconstructing the alcoholic family.

Abstract

Although 12-step self-help groups have become extremely popular in U.S. society, clinicians and researchers have devoted little attention to how these groups affect members. This project used naturalistic and qualitative methods to examine the processes through which committed members of self-help groups for adult children of alcoholics experience alterations in their perceptions of family of origin. Results suggest that world view transformation in the family of origin domain involves learning to define the family as pathological, assigning responsibility for this pathology to a disease, forgiving oneself, accepting that one was adversely affected by the family's problem, and ultimately learning to accept one's parents' shortcomings.