Coping with Stressful Events: Influence of Parental Alcoholism and Race in a Community Sample of Women

Abstract

The study explores the role of race and differences in coping among 290 white women and black women with and without alcoholic parents, addressing two questions: (1) Does coping vary by parental alcoholism or race? and (2) How is coping in adulthood affected by childhood stressors and resources and by adulthood resources? Standardized self-administered questionnaires (Coping Responses Inventory and the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test) measuring approach and avoidant coping methods were used. Collateral information was obtained from siblings who completed questionnaires focused on parental drinking, parental psychiatric history, and key childhood events. Women with alcoholic parents and black women more often reported avoidant coping. Women with negative childhood family environments and a lack of adolescent social support more often reported avoidant coping responses. Self-esteem was associated with a higher score on active cognitive coping and a lower score on avoidant coping. Findings of greater use of avoidant coping by women with alcoholic parents contrast with other studies showing no differences in coping, or very small group differences. The fact that all women in this sample lived with two parents in childhood may be one explanation.