Substance Abuse by Elders and Self-Enhancement Bias

摘要

Human service professionals regularly do not recognize the symptoms of substance abuse in older populations and are unlikely to provide intervention. In this study, human service students (N = 242) were given one of three vignettes in which the main character was an 80-year-old man, an 80-year-old woman, or they were asked to imagine themselves at 80. The vignette character was described as living alone, smelling of alcohol, and whose garbage was filled with empty beer and wine containers. Respondents were asked whether they believed the character had a substance abuse problem, if intervention was appropriate, if the character was depressed or suffering from self-neglect, and if the neighbors should express their concerns to the character. The largest number of respondents perceived that the vignette character may have a drinking problem, may be lonely, and would benefit from professional help. Most did not believe neighbors should express concern or that the character was suffering from self-neglect. Those who completed the vignette in which they were asked to imagine themselves at age 80 were prone to self-enhancement bias. Using the Wilks' Lambda criteria, the General Linear Model was significant (F = 1.474, p = .024), with 8 of the 25 items possessing significant p values.