A Comparison Study to Investigate Coping Skills of Mental Health Counselors who are Adult Children of Alcoholics and Mental Health Counselors who are Adult Children of Non-Alcoholics

Abstract

Adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs) often prioritize the needs of others ahead of their own. As this characteristic can lead individuals into maladaptive behavior patterns that involve helping others at their own expense, it may also lead them to careers in counseling or other helping professions. If these counseling professionals have not effectively processed or learned to cope with the potential maladaptive cognitive or behavioral patterns resulting from being raised in alcoholic families, ethical problems concerning potential harm to clients due to counselor effectiveness or impairment may arise (American Counseling Association, 2014). The purpose of this study was to examine if the coping skills of counseling professionals who were raised in a home with at least one alcoholic parent were different from those raised in a home without an alcoholic parent. This quantitative research study of 131 counseling professionals included the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST) to determine if they are ACOAs or adult children of non-alcoholics (non-ACOAs) and the COPE Inventory to determine their use of 15 different coping skills. Using a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to analyze the data collected, this study found there to be significant differences between the two groups in both overall coping and dysfunctional coping. The results indicated that counseling professionals that are ACOAs utilized less functional coping skills than their non-ACOA counterparts, leaving them susceptible to potential negative outcomes for themselves and their clients. Continued research is needed to better understand how family-of-origin dynamics can impact counselor well-being and client outcomes.