Identifying offspring of problem-drinking parents: comparison of five self-report measures

Although there is general consensus that self-report measures are reliable in offspring identification of parental problem drinking, studies in which these measures are used differ in two important ways: 1) different self-report measures are used across investigations, and 2) when identical measures are used, idiosyncratic cutoff criteria are employed. The purpose of this study was to compare five self-report measures commonly used in college-age populations to identify problem-drinking parents. When the most conservative criterion was employed, each of the five measures identified similar percentages of offspring as having problem-drinking parents (10% for fathers and 4% for mothers). Interrelationships among the five measures were examined, and each method appeared to contribute both to the common and unique variance of the construct "parental problem drinking." Therefore no one measure can capture all aspects of a parent's drinking problem as reported by their offspring.