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Effects on children of alcohol dependent parents

Parents play an important role in their children's development during their adolescence. Dr. Michael Windle describes how alcohol abuse can interfere with parenting skills and marital relations, thereby affecting adolescent development and adjustment. Parents who abuse alcohol place their children at increased risk for alcohol and other drug use as well as for psychological problems.¹ Both genetic and environmental factors affect a child's development and may increase risk for future alcohol use. Using a purely epidemiological approach, the observation that alcoholism tends to run in families might lead to the inference that social learning processes are the main factor in its development.²

Both alcohol-dependent parents and parents who are not alcohol dependent play pivotal roles in shaping their child's drinking behavior. Parenting influences fall into two categories: alcohol specific and non-alcohol specific. Alcohol specific parenting influences include the modeling of parents' drinking behavior, "thinking" positively about alcohol and the effect it will have, the parent-child relationship and the family environment. These influences likely affect children of alcohol dependent parents more strongly than children of those who are not alcohol dependent. In contrast, non-alcohol specific influences such as parent-child interactions that favor aggressive, antisocial behavior or parents with psychological disorders similarly increase the risk for alcohol problems in both groups.³

Based on a child-centered definition of children of alcoholics (COA), the Children of Alcoholics Foundation defines alcohol dependence as the child's perception that a parent drinks too much and that drinking interferes with the child's life. This definition underscores the Foundation's underlying philosophy: COA's may need and deserve help, whether or not their parent or parents continue to drink and that for some, help may be needed over a lifetime. Some COA's require counseling or long-term treatment; others may do well, depending on their level of vulnerability.⁴

It is important to recognize that all issues of COA's are not resolved simply because a child becomes an adult. Although early intervention in childhood is key to preventing future addiction problems in adulthood, the Foundation has also included the workplace within its scope of activities. The Foundation's survey of major corporations showed that medical directors and human resource specialists failed to understand that long-term effects from family alcohol addiction could cause problem on the job. Although many adult COA's are productive employees, even those who do not have addiction or mental health problems can benefit from education about the disease and its ramifications.⁴