The relationship of family of origin and codependency

Abstract

The records of 160 patients from a dependency treatment center in Arizona were reviewed in an effort to substantiate the hypothesis that specific clusters of problems stand out as being characteristic of people seeking help for codependency. Research focused on family of origin and childhood experiences in relation to individual codependency levels. The presence of parent's chemical abuse, reported childhood physical and/or sexual abuse and identified dysfunctional family characteristics and each patient's DSM III diagnosis were recorded. Results were analyzed by comparing these variables to the patient's scored codependency level. The hypotheses were confirmed by the following findings: (1) As a subject's chemical dependency increases, codependency level decreases; (2) when sexual and physical abuse are reported, level of codependency increases; (3) as number of dysfunctional family of origin characteristics increase, codependency level increases; and (4) certain DSM III diagnoses related to level of codependency. An insignificant relationship was found between parent's chemical abuse and level of codependency indicating a null hypothesis.