Objective :The aim of this study was to examine the relationships of codependency with family stressors in childhood and psychopathology.
Methods :Subjects were a group of 88 normal adult males and a group of 76 alcoholic males. The degree of codependency was assessed with the Korean version of Recovery Potential Survey(RPS). All subjects filled out questionnaires regarding demographic information and family stressors. The psychopathology was measured by self-administred questionnaires using Symptom Check List-90-Revision (SCL-90-R).
Results : 1) There were no signiicant differences in codependency levels by sociodemographic characteristics in two groups, but obvious difference in mean of codependency scores (norrnal group :49.1215.41, alcoholism group :88.31 17.48).
2) There were significant differences in codependency levels between the presence and absence of parental physical abuse, parental death, and parental alcoholism (p<0.01) in both groups.
3) Among family stressors, parental physical abuse had the largest contribution to codependency level in multiple linear regression.
4) There were significant correlations between the codependency levels and the scores of SCL-90-R´s sub-scales of interpersonal sensitivity, depression, and anxiety in both groups.
Conclusion :The codependency levels were related to some family stressors such as parental physical abuse, parental death, and parental alcoholism and the high-level codependency was correlated with higher level of psycliupathology in both normal and alcoholi sm group. These results suggested that various family stressors, as is parental alcoholism may be predictors of codependency, and codependency also may be a predictor of other psychiatric disorders.
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