Do daughters of female alcoholics have more problems during childhood and adolescence than sons?

Abstract

171 female alcoholic inpatients living in Stockholm were examined and found to fulfil the alcoholism criteria of DSM‐III‐R. They comprised 171 women consecutively admitted to the Karolinska Alcohol Clinic and staying at least one week for treatment. The examination included a general medical examination, a psychiatric and social history, blood tests and ECG. The subjects’ and their families’ possibilities of creating a good upbringing environment for their children and their own childhood were studied. The alcoholics and their offspring were followed from the registers of the child welfare committees, temperance boards, social service departments, the Social Insurance Office and the Medical Information System of the Medical Services Board of Stockholm County Council. The children of the female alcoholics had, during their childhood, often had contact with an educational welfare officer, a psychologist or a physician for various problems and were also registered in the children's welfare committee registers. 29% of the female alcoholics themselves had been fostered by their biological mother alone or by grandparents until 16 years of age. 51% of the women had an alcohol‐abusing mother and father during childhood. Signs of social maladjustment and having been under the care of a child welfare committee were recorded in 20% and 12% of the women. Among the children, we found that the boys were more vulnerable during their adolescence than the girls and that there were also major similarities in the social situation for these children of alcoholic women. The indications were that there is also a vulnerable group among girls who develop high consumption of alcohol and simultaneous drug abuse during their teens. Forty five per cent of the girls and 60% of the boys among the female alcoholics’ children had school problems and were also in contact with an educational welfare officer, psychologist or physician for various problems. Scrutiny of the Children's Welfare Committee Register showed 60% of the sons and 40% of the daughters were registered. Forty five per cent of the boys and 30% of the girls were registered by the Temperance Board. Forty per cent of the boys and 25% of the girls were registered in the Criminal Offenders Register. Forty five per cent of the boys and 30% of the girls had had hospital treatment on at least one occasion for underlying physical illness or injury. The most common reason for establishing contact with children's psychiatric outpatient clinics or counselling clinics was recommendation and investigation necessitated by supportive measures and school adjustment problems. It is concluded that female alcoholics resemble male alcoholics and that these females have a disturbed childhood and often have an alcohol and drug‐abusing parent, nervous problems in the parents, attempted suicide by a parent and serious schisms in the family and that especially the boys from these female alcoholics' families are extremely vulnerable and they have a more traumatic childhood than the girls, but both of them fare ill.