Late-onset alcohol use disorder/problem drinking — Psychosocial characteristics and the role of meaning and purpose in life

This thesis is framed within Viktor Frankl’s theory of meaning, logotherapy, which literally translates as “therapy through meaning” (Frankl, 2011, p. 19). The thesis reports the findings of three studies (two qualitative, one quantitative) that investigated the psychosocial characteristics, and the role of meaning and purpose in life, among early- and late-onset problem drinkers now in recovery, and also when they were drinking problematically. The thesis defined early-onset problem drinking as drinking that became problematic before 45-years old, predominantly before 30-years old, and late-onset problem drinking as drinking that becomes problematic later in life, mostly emerging between 45- and 55-years old.

The first study investigated the participants’ retrospective, ‘active drinking voices’. During this phase of the participants’ narratives, a lack of meaning and purpose in life was prevalent in both groups; although there were some similarities, overall, there was more divergence than convergence between the groups regarding their psychosocial characteristics. The second study, which investigated the participants’ ‘recovery voices’, found that there were more points of convergence than divergence between the psychosocial characteristics of the two groups. Finding meaning and purpose in life was equally important and prevalent in both groups. The final study used two scales, the ‘Purpose in Life test’ and the ‘Meaning in Life Questionnaire’, to measure each construct in recovery and found a significant relationship between meaning and purpose in life and time in recovery in both groups. The thesis suggests that Frankl’s existential vacuum concept, a feeling that life has no meaning or purpose, is prevalent in problem drinkers, regardless of the age of onset. Conversely, again, regardless of the age of onset, the thesis further suggests that as time in recovery increases so too does the level of meaning and purpose in life.