Codependency Among College Women: A Comparison of Female Nursing and Business Students

Abstract

A Link has been assumed between codependent traits and the selection of a nursing career. Equating "undifferentiated self" in Bowen's family system theory with the concept of codependency, this study tested the hypotheses that nursing students show high levels of codependency and low levels of self-esteem. A group of 36 female nursing students was compared to a group of 34 female business students at a large university. the Spann-Fischer Codependency Scale and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale were utilities as well as a demographic questionnaire to measure subjects' level of codependency, self-esteem, satisfaction with parental communication, and presence of parental substance abuse. The findings did not support the main research hypotheses. However, codependency had a significant negative relationship with self-esteem and satisfaction with parental communication. Despite of some limitations to this study, results provided no evidence that nursing students tend to be codependent as compared to other student groups.