Personality traits and global self-esteem of alcohol addicts

Recognizing alcoholism as a serious disease has prompted numerous studies which have sought to uncover those aspects of personality that differentiate people who become addicts from those ones who do not develop addiction. The purpose of this study is to examine the existence of differences in personality traits according to the alternative five-factor model and global self-esteem between alcohol addicts and non-clinical population. The research was conducted on the sample of 72 respondents - 36 alcohol addicts and 36 healthy individuals, with no mental and somatic disorders. The obtained results point to the existence of statistically significant differences between the groups in personality trait Neuroticism-Anxiety (N-Anx) and global self-esteem. The significance of the results lies in the possible contribution to the planning and implementation of a psychological treatment of alcoholism. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.