Abstract
Previous studies have shown that children of alcohol use disorder (AUD) parents are more likely to develop alcohol problems as well as antisocial and other behavior problems. The purpose of this study was to examine gender discordance in the effect of early maternal and paternal influences on antisocial behaviors of boys and girls, as well as the environmental factors that moderate the parental effects. Specifically, we examined the effects of childhood and adulthood antisocial behavior of the parents on offspring antisocial behavior as young adults. We also examined whether mothers’ and fathers’ drinking problems when offspring were young children (6–8 years) affected offspring antisocial behavior as young adults (18–21 years). We evaluated 655 children from 339 families in the Michigan Longitudinal Study (MLS), a prospective study of AUD and non-AUD families. Path models were constructed in order to test for the parental contributions to offspring outcomes. We found that both mothers’ and fathers’ antisocial behavior contributed to the children’s young adult antisocial behavior. Only mothers’ drinking problems while their children were little had a significant effect on their sons’ later drinking, but not on their daughters’. These different parental effects suggest that maternal and paternal influences may be mediated by different mechanisms.
Highlights
As the most common substance of abuse in the world, alcohol contributes to alcohol use disorder (AUD) and to a host of related problems such as violence, physical abuse, traffic accidents, fetal alcohol syndrome and other negative outcomes as well as medical conditions and premature mortality
The childhood antisocial behavior (ASB) and adult ASB as well as number of drinking problems for both parents were higher in AUD families compared with non-AUD families (S3 Table)
Our findings demonstrate a difference between maternal and paternal influences on the ASB problems of their offspring during the life stage known as “early adulthood.”
Summary
As the most common substance of abuse in the world, alcohol contributes to alcohol use disorder (AUD) and to a host of related problems such as violence, physical abuse, traffic accidents, fetal alcohol syndrome and other negative outcomes as well as medical conditions and premature mortality. Problem drinking is recognized as one type of impulsive behavior. Gender differences in transmission of antisocial behavior problems. R01DA039952.The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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