Tendency toward controlling behavior in adult children of problem drinkers: an experimental study

Several clinicians have remarked on an obsessive need to control among adult children of alcoholics. In an experimental test of this hypothesis 30 adult children of problem drinkers and 31 control subjects performed a computer-simulated coin-tossing task. On half of the trials the outcome of the coin toss was open to control; the outcome was random on the remainder of the trials. The children of problem drinkers and the control group did not differ in their success on the task, but in comparison to control subjects the children of problem drinkers tended to perceive a greater difference between controllable and random trials in the coin-tossing task's openness to control. Of the two groups, the control subjects proved to be more realistic in their assessment of the control they had exercised during the task. These findings are discussed in terms of the theme of control in the lives of the adult children of alcoholics.