• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.37-59
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• 2004

Short Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test for Fathers(F-SMAST) and Mothers(M-SMAST) is to measure the presence of an alcohol use disorder in one's father and/or mother. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the Korean version of the F-SMAST and M-SMAST. A total of 241 college students, who resided in Seoul and two other cities, participated in this study. The internal consistency of the Korean version of the F-SMAST and M-SMAST was assessed using alpha coefficient. The alpha coefficient of both the F-SMAST and the M-SMAST was 0.82. Standard Errors of Measurement(SEM) were also computed. SEMs of the F-SMAST and the M-SMAST were quite low. With a cut-off score of 3, the F-SMAST correctly identified 91 percent of respondents who were presumed to be children of alcoholics and correctly identified 81 percent of respondents who were presumed not to be children of alcoholics. Sensitivity and specificity of the M-SMAST with a cut-off score of 1 are 0.33 and 0.81, respectively. Several variables were examined in relation to the F-SMAST and the M-SMAST to examine convergent and discriminant validity. It was found that the F-SMAST and the M-SMAST were significantly correlated with most of convergent variables(average amount of drinking per day, AUDIT, distress) and had not statistically significant relationships with discriminant variables(demographic variables). This study suggests that the Korean version of the F-SMAST and the M-SMAST be repeatedly assessed across different sample in order to confirm the findings of this study.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.46
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• pp.118-144
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• 2001

To examine association between psychological characteristics of Adult-Children of Alcoholics and psychosocial Problems was a purpose of this study. The data were collected on a written questionaire completed 765 adolescents who were consisted of children of alcoholic and nonalcoholic parents. Parental alcoholism was established using CAST and psychosocial problems were assessed by Youth Self Report. Psychological characteristics of ACOA were identified by Adult Children of Alcoholics Screening Test. This study showed that children of alcoholics possess distinct psychological characteristics and they have experienced a variety of psychosocial problems. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted in order to determine the extent to which characteristics of ACOA affected on psychosocial problems. As a results, psychological characteristics of ACOA were significantly associated with them after controlling for the correlates of family structure, level of family functioning, and parental alcoholism. In addition, two group of ACOA were created on the basis of scores of ACAST. High-risk group had significantly higher YSR scores than low-risk group and it revealed that clinical intervention was needed for many adolescents in high-risk group. The results underscored the importance of ACOA syndrome in adaptation of children with alcoholic parents and suggested the need of future research focusing on development process of subtypes of ACOA.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.167-174
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• 1996

Alcoholics increased susceptibility to microbial infection that is associated with decreased immunity. but there has been little experimental evidence to support alcoholics-induced increase of microbial infection directly in non-specific immunity. Therefore, we were used the method of phagocytic-plaque including all the stimulating factors for the phagocytosis, subtypes of lymphocytes and T-lymphocyte proliferation. The experimental groups were divided into 3 groups: (1) alcoholics who were hospitalized less than 1 week (newly hospitalized alcoholics), (2) alcoholics who were hospitalized more than 2 weeks (old hospitalized alcoholics), (3) healthy blood donors. We have studied 98 alcoholics and 35 healthy blood donors and control groups. A physician has checked the biological markers and diagnosed the body-condition alcoholics. The immunity and non-specific immunity on the alcoholics were analyzed by using the simultest kit and flow cytometry. Proliferation of the lymphocytes was analyzed by the phytohemmagglutinine mitogen. Phagocytosis and migration properties of leukocytes were identified on the layer formed by Staphylococcus aureus Cowan I strain. Biological markers of alcoholics and control groups, by such as blood glucose, ${\gamma}$-glutamyl transpeptidase and mean corpuscular volumes of red blood cells, were determined by biochemical and hematological methods. Compared with control groups, cluster of differentiation (CD)3+, CD8+ and CD19+ in alcoholic were more decreased except CD4+/CD8+ ratio. Proliferation of the T-lymphocytes, phagocytosis and migration properties of the leukocytes in alcoholics were decreased compared with those of control groups. According to the results observed in our experiment, they can be summerized as follows: 1, Cellular, humoral and non-specific immunities, are markedly decreased in alcoholics than those in control groups. 2. It is inferred that Phagocytic plaque formation is a very useful method to evaluate phagocytosis and migration properties of the alcoholic leukocytes 3. It is thought that the subtypes of lymphocytes, especially CD4+/CD8+ ratio, are essential methods to analyzed the alcoholic immunity. 4. Specific and non-specific immunity on the old hospitalized alcoholics was slightly increased, which depends upon the alcoholic medication.