Substance use and symptomatology among adolescent children of alcoholics.

Abstract

This study assessed the magnitude and specificity of parental alcoholism as a risk factor for internalizing symptomatology, externalizing symptomatology, and alcohol and drug use in adolescence. We evaluated parents' and children's reports of symptomatology and children's reports of alcohol and drug use in a community sample of 454 adolescents. The results showed that parental alcoholism was a moderate to strong risk factor, with stronger risk associated with recent (rather than remitted) parental alcoholism. Multivariate analyses showed that the specificity of risk varied with the outcome measure. In predicting externalizing symptomatology, the risk associated with parental alcoholism was mediated by co-occurring parental psychopathology and environmental stress. However, in predicting alcohol use, the father's alcoholism was a specific risk factor above and beyond the more generalized effects of stress and family disruption.

Disaggregating the Distal, Proximal, and Time-Varying Effects of Parent Alcoholism on Children’s Internalizing Symptoms

“…Alternatively, and more specific to the focus of the current study, internalizing symptoms may too narrowly define child functioning to capture the ways in which COAs respond to those periods of life when their parents are actively abusing alcohol. This possible explanation is consistent with previous studies showing that the strongest specific effects of parent alcoholism on child functioning indices are, not surprisingly, for alcohol involvement itself (Chassin et al 1991). Moreover, we might expect the timevarying and proximal effects of parent alcoholism on children's externalizing symptoms to be more evident even in childhood because externalizing symptoms consistently show stronger relations with alcohol involvement than do internalizing symptoms (e.g., Hussong et al 1998).…”

“…Direct interview data confirmed that neither biological nor custodial parents met criteria for a lifetime alcoholism diagnosis. Recruitment biases have been found to be minimal (Chassin et al 1991(Chassin et al , 1992. Although contact rates were low (38.3% from archival records and 44.2% from reverse directories), participation rates were high (72.8% of eligible COA families and 77.3% of eligible control families participated).…”

“…This may be a particularly relevant model for understanding the effects of parent alcoholism on children's internalizing symptoms as family linkage studies suggest the possibility of co-transmission for depression and alcoholism, such that COAs may receive a dual genetic vulnerability for both disorders (Kendler et al 1994;Merikangas et al 1985;Zucker 2006). Moreover, COAs show a clear risk for greater life stress in the form of family conflict and disturbance, child abuse and neglect, and more stressful life events (Chassin et al 1991;Sher et al 1997). In turn, some evidence suggests that these stressful life events may mediate the relation between baseline parent alcoholism and adolescents' internalizing symptoms .…”

“…Although parent alcoholism has a broad impact on child functioning (Chassin et al 1991), we focus here on internalizing symptoms specifically. Internalizing symptoms show a high rate of comorbidity with other indices of child functioning and, unlike externalizing symptoms and substance use, show little change over time in relation to parent alcoholism in launch models.…”

Struggling with one’s own parenting after an upbringing with substance abusing parents

“…Parental substance abuse is often associated with family dysfunction, as the parenting skills and behaviours of adults with such problems are significantly impaired. Substance abusing parents can frequently be neglectful, abusive, unreliable, and emotionally unavailable for their children (Chassin, Rogosch, & Barrera, 1991; Velleman, Templeton, Reuber, Klein, & Moesgen, 2008). Children who are subjected to this kind of dysfunctional family situation, summarized in the concept of “Adverse Childhood Experiences” (ACE; Felitti et al, 1998), are at risk for developing problematic behaviours that affect both their own and their future children’s lives (Ivarsson, Saavedra, Granqvist, & Broberg, 2015; Kalmakis & Chandler, 2015; Lomanowska, Boivin, Hertzman, & Fleming, 2015).…”