The Model of Psychological Roles in Alcoholic Families Needs to be Revised

This paper presents the process of developing the Family Roles Questionnaire (FRQ) research tool, which measures the psychological roles played by young adults in their families. Following Wegscheider-Cruse roles/research scales of Hero, Mascot, Lost Child, and Scapegoat were distinguished. The role/scale of Iron Child was added to indicate an individual who doesn't suffer any obvious mental damage despite growing in dysfunctional environment on the basis of multiple reports from the resilience trend. Among women and men from alcoholic families virtually every role came out with a high rate, but the highest average result was in the Scapegoat role. Roles of Hero and Mascot in women, and Lost Child in men, usually treated as specific for alcohol families, did not show up relevant. There are differences between men and women in the scale of Iron Child, which suggests that each gender preferred different adaptive mechanisms.