Stigmatization of men and women problem drinkers and their spouses. Differential perception and leveling of sex differences.

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Abstract
A semantic differential scale composed of 16 bipolar adjective pairs was used by 104 men and 104 women to rate men and women alcoholics, drunk persons, spouses of alcoholics, and unlabeled men and women. Compared with unlabeled men and women, alcoholics and drunk persons were rated more sour, dishonest, bad, sick, immoral, slow, weak, selfish and hopeless, and less respectable, less responsible and less reliable. The only significant differences in the ratings of alcoholics and drunk persons were that alcoholics were rated less reliable, more dishonest and sicker. Alcoholism did not carry a greater stigma for either sex, but female drunk persons and alcoholics were judged more masculine and harder than unlabeled women, and male drunk persons and alcoholics were rated more feminine, softer and weaker than unlabeled men. Spouses of alcoholics were stigmatized, but not as much as alcoholics themselves were stigmatized. Compared with married persons in general, they were perceived as sour, bad, unrespectable, irresponsible, unreliable and uncritical. Others'' expectations may contribute to sex-role ambivalence in alcoholics and their spouses.

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