Psychosocial functioning in children of alcoholic fathers, depressed fathers and control fathers

Children of alcoholics are often viewed as having major psychological problems resulting from their interactions within disturbed family structures. Most studies, however, have selected alcoholics from multiproblem families in which it is difficult to disentangle the impact of alcoholism from concomitant psychosocial and psychiatric problems. Further, few studies have used psychometrically sound measures of alcoholism or child functioning. In this investigation, children of alcoholic, depressed and control (social drinkers and not depressed) fathers were assessed by parents on the Child Behavior Checklist and by teachers on the Conner Teacher Rating Scale and the Myklebust Pupil Rating Scale. Although children of alcoholics and of depressives were rated higher on behavior problems by parents than the children of controls, only a minority of these children received scores indicative of severe impairment. The importance of considering the clinical significance of group differences and of examining the joint impact of alcoholism and other psychopathologies is discussed.