Mental Health Problems in Adolescent Children of Alcohol Dependent Parents: Epidemiologic Research with a Nationally Representative Sample.

In this study, with an epidemiologic sample of national scope, we seek confirmatory evidence about specific mental health problems of adolescent children living with actively alcohol dependent parents (AD+ children) as compared to control children whose parents are not alcohol dependent (AD- children). Treatment sample research leads us to expect the most prominent AD+/AD- differences with respect to externalizing symptoms. Data for this study were from the 1995 and 1996 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), with the sample and field research staff 'blinded' to the study's hypothesis. Within the NHSDA national sample, a total of 1,729 parent-child pairs living in the same household were assessed. Youths were asked to complete an adapted version of Achenbach's Youth Self-Report. Independently, the parent was asked about his or her alcohol problems using an adapted version of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed the AD+ children (n = 79) to have higher delinquency (p < .001 ) and aggressive behavior scores (p < .05) as compared to AD- children (n = 1,650). Multivariate analysis of covariance (MAN COVA), with five sociodemographic characteristics as covariates, confirmed the presence of independent delinquency excesses (but not independent aggressive behavior excesses) among children living with a parent with alcohol problems (F = 9.23, df = 1,1659, p < .01). The evidence of this study favors the hypothesis that adolescent children living with an alcohol dependent parent have more delinquency problems than other adolescents. We did not find similar patterns of association for the internalizing symptoms, nor for aggression, once delinquency was held constant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]