Children Of Nonalcoholic Parents Research Articles

Level of Self Esteem among Children of Alcoholic and Non Alcoholic Parents

The National Association of Children of Alcoholics estimates that there are 11 millions children of alcoholics under the age of 18 years. A study was conducted to assess level of self esteem among children of alcoholic & non alcoholic parents. The objectives were to assess, compare and find out the association between the level of self esteem and socio personal data. Methodology adopted for the study was descriptive comparative design with multistage sampling. Sample size was 128. Structured questionnaire was used to collect socio personal data of participants and Children of Alcoholics Screening test was used to identify children of alcoholic and non alcoholic parents. After that the standardized tool State Self Esteem Scale was used to assess the level of self esteem The study findings revealed that in children of alcoholic parents group, 82.8% (53) were having poor self esteem and 17.2% (11) were having good self esteem where as in children of non alcoholic parents group, 78.1% (50) were having good self esteem and 21.9% (14) were having poor self esteem. On the basis of comparison between the level of self esteem among children of alcoholic and non alcoholic parents, revealed that there is statistically significant difference between level of self esteem score among children of alcoholic and non alcoholic parents group.

Adult Daughters of Alcoholic Parents-A Qualitative Study of These Women's Pregnancy Experiences and the Potential Implications for Antenatal Care Provision.

The adult children of alcoholic parents are at increased risk of having health problems compared to the adult children of nonalcoholic parents. Little is known about how growing up with alcoholic parents affects women’s experiences when pregnant. The objectives of this study were to explore how adverse childhood experiences related to parental alcohol abuse affect women during their pregnancy and to assess the potential implications of women’s experiences for antenatal care provision. Twelve in-depth interviews were performed with women who were brought up by an alcoholic mother and/or father. Systematic text condensation was used to analyse the data. Two main categories were identified: ‘establishing relationships and having social support’ and ‘antenatal care encounters and concerns during pregnancy’. Women’s trust in others in adult life was impacted by their upbringing. Strained relationships with their parents and few friends meant that the women primarily relied on their partners for support. Neither antenatal care providers nor women talked about women’s childhood experiences at the visits. The women described concerns related to the baby’s health, lack of predictability and control during the pregnancy, as well as apprehensiveness regarding birth and motherhood. The potential implications for practice include systematic screening for adverse childhood experiences, antenatal preparation classes, parenting courses, and post-graduate training.

Parent-child relationship in children of alcoholic and non-alcoholic parents.

Aim:Overall aim of the study was to see parent-child relationship in children of alcoholic and non-alcoholic parents.Materials and Methods:The sample consisted of 30 alcoholic and 30 non-alcoholic parents and their children taken from Kanke Block of Ranchi district. The sample was selected on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Socio-demographic data sheet and Parent Child Relationship Scale (Rao, 1978) were administered to the children.Results:In a child’s perception of father in various domains of parent-child relationship, significant difference at P < 0.01 was found in the domain of symbolic punishment, rejecting, objective punishment, demanding, indifferent, symbolic reward in loving and neglecting, and in child’s perception of the mother. Significant difference at P < 0.01 was found in the domain of symbolic punishment, rejecting, object punishment, indifferent and in neglecting.Conclusion:The result showed that the children of alcoholic parents tended to have more symbolic punishment, rejecting, objective punishment, demanding, indifferent, symbolic reward loving and in neglecting than children of non alcoholic parents.

Searching for an environmental effect of parental alcoholism on offspring alcohol use disorder: A genetically informed study of children of alcoholics.

The children-of-twins design was used to isolate a potentially causal environmental impact of having an alcoholic parent on offspring alcohol use disorder, by an examination of whether the children of alcoholics were at a higher risk for alcohol use disorders than were the children of nonalcoholic parents, even after correlated familial factors were controlled. Participants were 1,224 male and female twins from 836 twin pairs selected from the Australian Twin Registry, 2,334 of the twins' 18-39-year-old offspring, and 983 spouses of the twins. Lifetime histories of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.) alcohol use disorders were obtained by structured, psychiatric, telephone interviews conducted individually with each of the family members. Comparisons of the offspring of twins who were discordant for alcoholism indicated that there was no longer a statistically significant difference between the children of alcoholics and the children of nonalcoholics after genetic and family environmental factors correlated with having an alcoholic parent were controlled. The results of this study suggest that the direct causal effect of being exposed to an alcoholic parent on offspring alcohol use disorder is modest at best.

The influence of parental drinking behaviour and antisocial personality disorder on adolescent behavioural problems: Results of the Greifswalder Family Study

Contradictory results have been produced by previous research on the question to what extent do children of alcoholics (COAs) differ in measures of externalizing symptoms from children of non-alcoholic parents. The goal of this study was to determine whether COAs are characterized by more behavioural problems than non-COAs, and also to determine the influence of a paternal antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) in this context. In this study, 340 children and adolescents between the ages of 11 and 18 years and their parents were included. Of this sample, 76 adolescents showed a positive family history of alcoholism (FHalc) and 47 adolescents a positive history of a paternal ASPD (FHaspd). Externalizing symptoms, which where measured on the basis of maternal ratings and self-assessments, were analysed with a two-factorial MANCOVA with FHalc and FHaspd as independent factors. The results of the MANCOVA revealed that only children with paternal ASPD showed significant higher scores in attentional problems, self-rated aggression/delinquency and disruptive behaviour, while there were no differences for FHalc and the interaction effect. Our findings show that the higher of behavioural problems relates primarily to a higher prevalence in both cases of ASPD among fathers. These results were discussed regarding the mediating role of a paternal ASPD for the differences in behavioural problems in COAs and non-COAs. Furthermore, children with FHalc and/or FHaspd represent high-risk groups and should be the focus of prevention and intervention measures.

Self-concept, academic performance and behavioral evaluation of the children of alcoholic parents

It has been shown that being the child of an alcoholic is a risk factor for the development of alcoholism in adulthood. Due to the suffering caused by living with alcoholic parents, other vulnerabilities appear in such children. Among these are low self-esteem, poor academic performance and behavioral problems. This work aims to comparatively evaluate children of alcoholic parents and children of nonalcoholic parents. The study design was quasi-experimental, involving two comparison groups. Two groups of 20 children were selected. The groups consisted of 10- to 12-year-old male and female children. One group comprised children of alcoholic parents, whereas the other comprised children of nonalcoholic parents. The self-concepts of these children were evaluated using the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale as well as the Academic Performance Test. Their mothers participated in the study by answering questions related to the behavior of their children on the Rutter A2 scale of Child Behavior. The results showed that the children of alcoholic parents tended to have more negative self-concepts and presented lower academic performance in reading and arithmetic than did children of nonalcoholic parents. Based on the responses given by the mothers, the children of alcoholic parents presented more behavioral problems than did those of nonalcoholic parents. The results of this study confirm those of other studies and call attention to the need to be aware of the potential vulnerabilities of children of alcoholic parents and, especially, to try to minimize such vulnerabilities, thereby altering the course of psychological suffering that can mark their lives.

Effects of parental alcoholism and life stress on Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Caucasian adolescents: a prospective study.

Investigated ethnicity and parental alcoholism as factors that might influence the stress vulnerability of adolescents. It extended an initial cross-sectional study of this same sample by adding two annual assessments which allowed for additional cross-sectional analyses and longitudinal tests. Hispanic and Caucasian adolescents (N = 306 at Time 1) completed measures of their own life stress, family conflict, and alcohol use. Their parents reported on adolescents' internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Cross-sectional analyses at Time 2, and prospective analyses involving Time 1 and Time 2 measures were, for the most part, consistent with the original study's results. Caucasian adolescents and children of alcoholic parents appeared to be more vulnerable to stress than Hispanic adolescents and children of nonalcoholic parents. Family conflict was a partial explanation for this increased vulnerability.

Psychological Size and Distance in the Relationships of Adult Children of Alcoholics with Their Parents

Adult children of alcoholics' (n = 68) perceptions of their relationships with parents were compared with those of a control sample (n = 37) to examine independent and joint influences of interpersonal status and affect on family dynamics. Visual metaphors for relationships using circle drawings and a status-affect rating scale from the Grasha-Ichiyama Psychological Size and Distance Scale were employed. Compared with the control group, adult children of alcoholics drew smaller circles to represent themselves, i.e., indicating less interpersonal status, only when assessing their relationships with their fathers. Analyses of status-affect ratings showed that the drawings of smaller circles reflected feeling less competent, i.e., having less personal knowledge and expertise, rather than perceptions of being submissive in the relationship. The distance drawn between the circles of adult children of alcoholics and their parents, i.e., psychological distance, was much larger than that of the control group. Ratings showed that perceptions of a negative emotional climate and submissiveness together accounted for 25% of the unique variance in predicting psychological distance. Perceptions of being submissive, however, were not associated with perceptions of psychological distance among adult children of nonalcoholic parents.

School adjustment of children of alcoholic fathers: Comparison to normal controls

The present study used objective indices of academic performance to test the hypothesis that children of alcoholic fathers (COA's) have poorer school adjustment than children of nonalcoholic parents (non-COA's). Subjects were 39 children of male alcoholics treated for alcoholism in a VA program and 33 control children whose nonalcoholic parents (matched on demographic indices) reported low marital conflict. The results showed that daughters of alcoholics, but not the sons, showed more variability than controls in their school attendance. There was suggestive evidence that they also missed more school days than controls, with a reversed pattern for the sons of alcoholics. Generally, however, the COA group was not compromised academically and did not show more conduct problems compared to controls. Within the COA group, long-term paternal drinking adjustment (years of problem drinking and total number of hospitalizations for drinking) appeared to be related to poorer GPA, while short-term adjustment (alcohol-related days in jail and number of days drinking in year previous to treatment) were more related to poorer attendance. The results are discussed in terms of the mechanism of the effect of paternal drinking on children's school adjustment and the difficulty in making generalizations about the consequences of being the child of an alcoholic.

Psychopathology in children of alcoholic and antisocial parents.

In this controlled family study the frequency of psychiatric disorder in children of alcoholic parents was found to be higher than in children of nonalcoholic parents. The rate in children of two alcoholic parents was distinctly higher than in those of one alcoholic parent. Comparison was also made between children of antisocial parents (usually coexisting with alcoholism) and children of parents with alcoholism only; no significant differences in the rates of childhood disorder were found between these two groups. Structured diagnostic interviews independently administered to both parents and children between 6 and 17 years old were used to assess psychopathology in the children. The types of disorders in the children of alcoholic parents reflected a mixed diagnostic picture with the reports of both parents and children yielding similar results.