Theory of mind among young adult children from alcoholic families.

Abstract

Given the evidence that several cognitive and emotional functions are impaired in adult alcohol-dependent patients and the possibility that some of these deficits are transmitted to their children, the objective of the present study was to test the hypothesis that the perception of complex mental states would be reduced in young adults from families with a positive family history of alcohol dependence. It was also anticipated that social-perceptual deficits would confer unique predictive ability beyond that shared with other cognitive risk factors for alcohol dependence and/or substance use risk. Data from 301 youth ages 18-21 years, recruited from an ongoing community longitudinal study of alcoholic and matched control families, were analyzed. Family history of alcohol dependence as well as alcohol-dependence diagnosis in the youth was based on diagnostic criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition. A substance use risk factor measured early problem alcohol/other drug use. The perception of mental states was measured with the computerized version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET). Children of alcohol-dependent parents did not show impairment in the mental states perception task, nor did social perception skills predict alcohol dependence in the youth. Correlational analysis performed between RMET and the substance use risk factor showed no significant association between the variables. The study results do not confirm the hypothesis that behaviorally measured social perception impairment is more prevalent in the children of alcohol-dependent parents. In addition, social-perceptual deficits were not a unique marker of either alcohol dependence or high risk for alcohol dependence in this young adult sample.