Children's health and child-parent relationships as predictors of problem-drinking mothers' and fathers' long-term adaptation.

Abstract

This study examined the extent to which children's health status and child-parent relationships affected the severity of problem-drinking parents' alcohol use disorders, as well as the parents' psychological states and marital stressors and resources. These issues were examined using data from an 8-year study of problem-drinking women and men. Generally, over the 8-year period, the children of alcoholic mothers and fathers were comparable on their health status and relationships with their parents. The severity of mothers' and fathers' drinking problems were also generally comparable over this period. Better children's health and child-parent relationships at baseline and 1- and 3-year follow-ups were consistent predictors of mothers' reduced drinking and better psychological states on the subsequent follow-ups. Associations between children's functioning and fathers' adaptation were few and inconsistent. The results support the possibility that an undesirable cycle might be established in which maternal drinking and children's dysfunction coexist in an ever worsening reciprocal relationship.