Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)

Changes in Friend Social Networks

Research demonstrates that participation in AA leads to changes in social networks and the support they provide for sobriety. The greatest impact is on changes in the composition of friendship networks, much less so on family and other networks. There is evidence that 12-step members tend to replace friends who are not members with those who are, and they tend to increase the size of their social networks by adding even more abstinence-supporting friends from AA. Research has found that those with networks supportive of drinking alcohol actually benefit the most from participating in AA because their new friendships discourage drinking and relapsing.

Longer participation in 12-step programs is associated with having more close friends, more frequent contact with friends, a greater degree of trust and interests shared with friends, and greater feelings of being understood and respected by friends. Thus, increased contact with abstainers and reduced contact with drinkers is important in maintaining abstinence.

Studies have found that affiliative feelings among AA members are comparable to or greater than feelings for close friends and family, even though AA relationships are often much newer. And most of the positive effects of AA participation on changes in social networks have been found for relationships with friends, but not with family or others. Thus, the research suggests that friends [Page 21]are more important to sobriety than are spouses/partners or family members. Spouses sometimes resent the time that AA participation involves and are sometimes jealous of the new friends found in AA.

However, when spouses or partners attend Al-Anon (a mutual-help organization for family of AA members), abstinence rates have been found to be much higher (86 percent versus 46 percent) than for those who do not.

Research has found that participation in AA is associated with a significantly greater proportion of network members encouraging reduced drinking and more social contacts. It is also associated with a lower proportion of heavy or problem drinkers. After a period of several years, the proportion reverses. This suggests that active AA members may be able to associate safely with heavy drinkers only after a period of at least several years of active participation.

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