The Processes of Life Experiences that Wives of Alcoholic Husbands Have
Authors: Lee Kyung Woo 
Published: November 2024

The purpose of this study is to show substantive theory by describing and analysing the nature and processes of the life experiences, the wives of the alcoholics have. The main agenda of this study is “what do the wives of alcoholics experience in their lives with alcoholic husbands and how the processes of lives go through?'* Grounded Theory Method designed by Strauss and Corbin(1991, 1998) was used for this study.The period of interviews for this study was from July 13th. 1998 to June 27th, 2000 and the number of participants for this study were sixteen. They were living with the alcoholic husbands who were in the mental hospitals, registered in the public health centers or mental health centers. Data were fully gathered up to the saturation through in - depth interviews and participating observations. The interviews were tape-recorded and right after the interviews, they were dictated and analysed.As a result of this study, 103 concepts such as unsociable character, 'closed character' etc. have been induced. And 31 subcategories such as 'lack of sociality*, inclination of the dependence on another person's will* etc. and 16 categories such as 'introvert character, 'lack of self-identity etc.have also been induced.In the paradigm modeled in this study, causal condition showed 'introvert character, 'lack of self-identity', and generosity on drinking*, and the phenomenon showed radical source of pain. The context affecting the phenomenon showed 'deviating behaviors of alcoholic husbands. ‘feeling of oppression, and lowering of living quality. In these contexts, intervening conditions stimulating or constraining the action/ interaction strategies were ‘lack of how to confront, sympathy for their husbands, supporting systems*, and 'handing down to posterity. The action/interaction strategies chosen by the participants were repressive confrontation, offensive confrontation, open confrontation, and loss of the confrontation will*. At the end, the results showed sinking into the unbearable pain.At the final selective coding, the core category of the lives of wives living with their alcoholic husbands was found out as the codependency.And this study analysed the processes of the wives' painful marriage lives accommodating their alcoholic husbands in different stages of time.These processes go through several stages such as endurance stage —> drinking control stage —〉 explosion stage ——> spreading stage ——> hopelessness stage.By analysing the types given from the data repeatedly on the basis of these hypotheses, three codependency types were found out such as the type of conviction of abstinence from drinking, the type of martyr-like sacrifice, and the type of self-abandonment.'Codependency’ shown in this study provides the basis for the development of the nursing intervention in different stages of time, and helps clearly to recognize that alcohol dependency is not the individual disease but the family disease which is seriously affecting the whole family members.Accordingly this study would be very helpful for nurses to develop the nursing program for the wives of alcoholics.