Marital Satisfaction in Couples with an Alcoholic Husband

Both members of 15 heterosexual couples with an alcoholic husband (AC) and of 15 matched couples with healthy members (HC)
filled out first, the Marital Adjustment Test (Locke, Wallace Marriage and Family Living 21:251–255, 1959), second, the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (Coopersmith 1967), and finally, a questionnaire on emotional feeling state in which the participant had to evaluate his or her own emotions
and the emotions experienced by his or her partner. Results showed that both AC members reported lower marital satisfaction
and a lower level of self-esteem than HC members. Furthermore, they were less congruent with their partner regarding the evaluation
of their partner’s emotional feeling states (EFS). These deficits could have repercussions on marital happiness, which itself
would have repercussions on the alcoholic’s treatment.