Mixed psychosocial outcomes of sisters from families with alcoholic parents

To examine intrafamilial differences in adulthood among children of alcoholic parents, 14 women with alcoholic parents and their sisters were assessed for this exploratory study. Reported here is the subset of eight "mixed" sister pairs, one with an impaired adult outcome and the other with a well-adjusted adult outcome. Subjects who scored significantly worse than community norms on depressed mood or social supports or who had a psychiatric diagnosis including substance abuse were categorized as impaired, while the remaining women were categorized as well-adjusted. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected using a questionnaire and a structured interview. Results showed similarities between the impaired and well-adjusted sisters on individual characteristics, with few differences on characteristics of the parental alcoholism. The most marked differences showed the impaired sisters to score worse than their well-adjusted sisters on characteristics of the home environment and social supports. The impaired women were also more likely to have been physically abused in childhood and to rate the effect of having an alcoholic parent as more negative than the well-adjusted women. Unanticipated findings relating to incest, talents, denial, and racial differences, and their implications for clinicians and researchers, are discussed.