Parental drinking, parent-child communication, and social skills in young adults

The goals of this study are to determine (1) if parent-child communication is associated with the level of alcoholic problems within the family and (2) if there is a relationship between problem drinking, family communication and the self-reported social skills of the young adult child. The self-reports of 338 students indicate that young adults who have memories of regular problem drinking within the family perceive less positive regard and a greater denial of or inattention to their feelings by the parents. Problem-drinking level interacted with either criticism or denial of feelings or emotional support to parents to predict primarily nonverbal social skills such as decreased emotional expressivity and increased sensitivity to the emotional cues of others. The results indicate that the effect of parental alcoholism on social skills of the young adult child must be considered in conjunction with specific types of family communication.