About value systems and religious orientations among family sobriety club members

Introduction For over 50 years, there has been based on Vladimir Hudolin method a family preventive program for the addicted of psychoactive substances and actions (Zoricic 2006; 42(1) 35). Family therapeutic communities (family sobriety clubs) exist in many countries in Europe and the world, in Russia there are over 50 clubs. In Russian clubs, a change in the lifestyle of rehabilitants is accompanied by a transformation of value systems and semantic formations into traditions of religious worldview. Objectives To study the dynamics of changes in value systems and religious beliefs among family sobriety club members during rehabilitation, which includes a spiritually-oriented component. Methods 50 Russian patients with alcohol addiction who participated in rehabilitation in a community setting were examined: 25 (“participants” group) - with remission from several months to two years, 25 (“leaders”) – with remission over two years were also the heads of family sobriety clubs. There were used psychometrical (Schwartz Value Survey – SVS, Religions Orientation Scale - ROS) and statistical methods. Results Leading values among “participants” are “kindness”, “safety” and “conformality”, the most significant values among “leaders” are “kindness”, “traditions” and “universalism” (р<0,05). Benchmarking: self-transcedence values prevail among “leaders”, high levels of self-raising among “participants”. Analysis of variance (ANOVA): increasing the significance of values of kindness (p = 0.025) and tradition (p = 0.009) at the level of ideals, tradition (p = 0.0003) and safety (p = 0.04) at the level of priorities at remote stages of rehabilitation. The cohesion of values among “leaders” is higher than among “participants” ( conformity (p = 0.03) and kindness (p = 0.09)). Over time a detailing of spiritual ideas takes place, rehabilitants identify themselves as believers and aim to change their lifestyle according to religious Faith values. According to ROS, there is a more meaningful religiosity among “leaders” than among “participants,” the predominance of internal religiosity over external religiosity at long stages of assistance. Conclusions Change in value orientations correlates with the duration of rehabilitation, their greater cohesion is noted, values are more consistent with the normative for the population as a whole. Religious idias become more harmonious, a transformation of dysfunctional manifestations of external religiosity into adaptive forms of internal religiosity is noted, which is associated with the increase of overall meaningfulness of life. Disclosure of Interest None Declared