The role of risk and protective factors in predicting symptomatology in adolescent self‐identified children of alcoholic parents

Abstract

Tested a stress process model for predicting mental health symptoms in children of alcoholics (COAs). Stress and mental health measures were completed twice over a 3-month period by 145 high school students, 43 of whom self-identified as COAs. Using structural equation modeling, a stress process model for predicting mental health symptoms in children provided a good fit to the data. COA status was related to higher levels of negative and lower levels of positive events. In turn, positive and negative life events were found to have an immediate, but not a longitudinal, direct effect on adolescent symptomatology.

Using cluster analysis to assess the effects of stressful life events: Probing the impact of parental alcoholism on child stress and substance use

“…Four categories of stressors were obtained that revolved predominantly around themes involving (a) parent-related conflicts, (b) child-relationship problems, (c) parent problems, and (d) major illness/bereavement. These results are consistent with Roosa, Beals, Sandler, and Pillow (1990), who determined that experts could reliably separate items from the COALES checklist of stressors into events involving parent (or family)-related conflict versus events involving parental drinking, and found differential relations involving these constructs. Most of the events in the parent-related conflict and parent problem clusters were from the CO-ALES; most of the events in the other two clusters were from the General Life Events Scale for Children.…”

Attention‐Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Moderates the Life Stress Pathway to Alcohol Problems in Children of Alcoholics

“…First, they replicate earlier findings that life stress mediates the parent alcoholism effect. These studies employed high-risk samples of children of alcoholics (Chassin et al, 1993(Chassin et al, , 1996 or convenience samples of school children (Roosa et al, 1988(Roosa et al, , 1990. The current study showed that the role of life stress as a mediator of parent alcoholism also applies to other high-risk groups such as children with ADHD and may be particularly applicable for such vulnerable populations.…”

The Influence of Maternal Drinking and Drug Use on the Quality of the Home Environment of School‐Aged Children

“…C HILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS have been found to be at risk for a host of problems, particularly "externalizing" behavior, including conduct disorder, attention problems, and academic problems (Fitzgerald and Zucker, 1995;Moos and Billings, 1982;Steinhausen, 1995;West and Prinz, 1987), as well as "internalizing" symptoms, such as anxiety and depression (Fitzgerald et al, 1993;Havey and Dodd, 1992;Roosa et al, 1990;Steinhausen, 1995;West and Prinz, 1987). There are also indications that these children may exhibit poorer academic performance (West and Prinz, 1987) and lower verbal IQ (Ervin et al, 1984;Gabrielli and Mednick, 1983;Tarter et al, 1984).…”