Dependency, this human characteristic, may contribute to enlighten alcohol abuse.

Dependency is a state of individual mind and it describes both a state of health, when autonomy and interpersonal relationships are balanced, and a pathological state, when affective bonds become symptoms, occasion to forced repetitions.

Dependency characterizes all the stages of human life, in particular youth: it's an aspect of temperance. This is the very way of being temperate on alcoholist which can reveal the error that opened the way to pathology.

The present research work tries to verify if and in what way the quality of early interpersonal relations and family atmosphere may constitute the predominant cause of the beginning and the development of alcohol dependency in adolescents. If and in what way this prevents a sense of guilt from being overcome and prejudices the harmonious development of personality primarily with regard to the dimensions of personal resources and the ability to plan ahead. This research is based on a supposition about personality characteristics which "maintain" alcohol dependency and determine the possible differences between male and female alcoholism.

The methodological approach used has been individual interviews carried out during a period in which the 241 subjects were staying in a clinic specializing in the treatment of alcohol- correlated pathologies. The observations which were made during the interview were supported by the answers to Sacks and coll. R.F.S.C., which give information on the dimensions of personality to be examined as well as the intensity of early family relations. The results obtained were submitted to statistical analysis.

The most significant results are found in the comparison between the subgroups formed according to sex and age. In particular, the females compared to the males, seem to have suffered damage at a relatively late stage and of a secondary nature which allows them to keep a positive concept of self and a capacity to face the present and future realistically. The younger ones compared to the others tended towards a sense of identity which is more autonomous of parental figures. Have they reacted by substituting one dependency for another - the alcoholic one? Or are they at the beginning of a pathological way of life?

Young alcoholics are more dependent on their paternal figures; they are more linked to their familiar relationships; on the contrary adolescents who over drink seem to have fallen into the habit for different reasons; the still forming personality of adolescents tries to assert itself separately from its personal story; only the past relationship with the maternal figure is considered important. Does the denunciation of a bad relationship with the mother act as a revealing symptom of risk of adolescent alcoholism?

When alcohol abuse becomes a permanent addiction, it renews the failure of the original dependency in a more remarkable way. Adolescents approach to alcohol often following the pathway of socialization, began within the family, but was gradually supported by "companionships". They are motivated by gregariousness and identification with their equals. We can suggest for young drinkers a leading path from imitation to alcohol addiction.

In spite of the sex, the tie with the mother, which is the privileged affective object, remains the livelier model in the personal structure of the alcoholic subject. In particular, males are more linked to the paternal figures, more dependent than females and also more childlike.

As to the structure of the personality, it is rather homogeneous for the two sexes, except for the perception of themselves, which is more realistic in males rather than in adolescent females. It is different for young people: males and females weigh differently personal abilities and live differently internal conflicts. Females, more sensitive to conflicting situations, judge themselves in a more realistic way, deprecating their own images and describing themselves in a very different way compared to young female alcoholics. On the contrary, males seem to be self- confident, but they do not think in a concrete way. These statistical data explain a different nature of male and female alcoholic pathology; females live a secondary conflict of interpersonal nature, which leads them to over drink; while males see in alcohol the validity of their own personalities and their sense of guilt.

In a certain way the pathological story, the permanence of the alcoholic habit, reversed the relational position of the two sexes in the addiction. At the beginning, females look to alcohol addiction for their own validity and idealization, males are perhaps more supported by a feeling of gregariousness. The stability of the pathological dependency shows very different reasons: male addiction is looking for a new union, the female one is looking for a reactive means to stand the uncertainties of life.

At the same time, different types of alcohol addiction, compared to age, show secondary reasons for adolescents, and primary causes for young people. The pathway of adolescent drinkers is masked, they resist longer and then they surrender to irreparable damages of alcohol; they "use" alcohol in a particular way to maintain that they don't need anybody whom they belong to.

While the young alcoholic personality "consists" of the substance and their addiction is the main symptom of their personal pathology, the addiction acts as "connective tissue" for a mental structure that has already become too precarious.

This research shows the necessity to recreate within the education system a positive ethos for the prevention of pathological dependencies in adolescent subjects. A health education-programme instead of basic information which redefines interpersonal relations. In particular the most significant, such as family ones. Education can re-establish a healthy autonomy based on an accepted dependency.

Serena Rossi, Maria Pediconi: "Alcohol abuse in adolescents and youth. How a pathological dependency begins and structures itself". Paper presented at the First International Congress of Adolescentology, Assisi, Italy, October 22-24 1993.

Key Words: Alcohol dependency, Adolescents, Familiar relationships.

Serena Rossi, Maria Pediconi: Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Urbino, Via Saffi, 15, 61029 Urbino.