Depressive Affect in School-aged Children of Alcoholics.

This paper presents evidence documenting risks for affective problems and disorders among minor children of alcoholics. Subjects studied were 98 youths from alcoholic-headed and control families participating in a risk for alcoholism research project (Johnson & Roll, see next paper in this issue). Depressive affect questionnaires were completed by the mothers of the youths as well as the youths themselves. ANOVA's and ANCOVA's (co-varying for age) indicated significant group differences on both maternal and youth ratings with more affective problems shown for the offspring of alcoholics. Outliers with extreme depressive affect scores occurred most frequently for the youths in the high risk for alcoholism group. Findings are discussed with regard to risk group membership, gender, source of information, and the data's implications for further analyses as well as for the design of future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]