Reliability of sibling reports on parental drinking behaviors

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Genetics
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Assessing parental drinking behaviors is crucial in alcohol research.
• Family history of alcoholism is a significant risk factor for developing alcohol use disorders.
• Reliability of retrospective reports on parental drinking can be influenced by various factors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the reliability of sibling concordance for retrospective reports of parental drinking behaviors.
• To examine gender differences in sibling agreement on parental drinking.
• To compare the reliability of objective versus subjective items on parental alcoholism.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of questionnaire data from the Colorado Alcohol Research on Twins and Adoptees (CARTA) study.
• Inclusion of 142 pairs of male and female, twin and nontwin siblings.
• Calculation of drinking-problem scales for fathers and mothers based on the Family Alcoholism History Questionnaire (FHQ).

Main Results:

• Generally good concordance was observed between sibling reports of parental problem drinking.
• Male offspring showed higher agreement on maternal drinking, while female offspring agreed more on paternal drinking.
• Objective items (e.g., drunk-driving arrests) demonstrated higher reliability (kappa .56-.66) than subjective items (e.g., happiness when drinking, kappa .24 to -.03).

Conclusions:

• Sibling reports on parental drinking behaviors are largely reliable, supporting the use of such data in alcohol studies.
• Gender influences sibling agreement on reporting parental drinking habits.
• Objective questions concerning parental alcoholism are more reliable than subjective ones.