Parental alcohol consumption and deviant child behavior: Laboratory studies of reciprocal effects

Abstract

A series of laboratory experiments that examine the relationship between parental alcohol consumption and deviant child behavior is reviewed. The studies were designed to evaluate the familial influences that two disinhibitory disorders, parental alcohol problems and childhood attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), may have on one another. The studies provide evidence of bidirectional effects. Specifically, (a) alcohol consumption has deleterious effects on the management strategies that parents use to control children's deviant behavior, and (b) children's deviant behavior increases parental distress and alcohol consumption. These effects may vary as a function of such variables as parental gender, marital status (for women), familial risk for alcohol problems, and parent and child psychopathology.