Author: Alex Thompson

Alcoholic Parents: Understanding the Impact on Children and How to Seek Help

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  1. This is an encouraging finding as infants with only one problem-drinking parent were less likely to be insecurely attached to both of their parents compared to infants with two problem drinking parents.
  2. However, others have found a unique effect for parental alcoholism above and beyond cooccurring parental psychopathology in predicting children’s internalizing (i.e., anxiety and depression) and externalizing (i.e., aggression and delinquency) symptoms 5,6.
  3. A therapist specializes in helping adult children of alcoholics navigate the healing process.
  4. They show up as anxiety, depression, substance abuse, stress, anger, and relationship problems.
  5. Findings from these studies also showed greater risk for problem outcomes in children from families with multiple alcoholic parents (two versus one).

The Genetic and Environmental Risk Factors

Interestingly, whereas children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome may have difficulties with acquiring and learning new information 31, their ability to remember learned information may not be as deficient as previously believed 32,33. Thus, research findings concerning the impact of prenatal drug exposure on children’s cognitive development appear more consistent for parental alcohol than for cocaine exposure. Attachment theory posits that infants obtain an understanding of the world and what to expect from their relationships with others based on whether their caregivers are consistent, sensitive, and responsive to their needs 84.

Adult Children Of Alcoholics

The project described was supported by Award Number R01DA from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of the National Institute on Drug Abuse or the National Institutes of Health. They can help you understand the possible risks and decide if it’s a safe choice for you.

Treating Both Addiction and Underlying Mental Health Problems

Despite the large literature on children of substance abusing parents, few studies have focused on the extent to which deficits in parenting mediate the effects of parents’ substance abuse on child outcomes. Two examples that we highlight here indicate that parenting may be part of the reason for these negative outcomes. First, Chassin, Curran, Hussong and Colder 62 showed that parents’ monitoring of their children accounted, in part, for the association between parental alcoholism and escalations in adolescents’ substance use over time. Other contributors to this risk included increased greater life stressors within the family, resulting in greater internalizing symptoms in these youth and associations with deviant peers which directly predicted steeper escalations in adolescent substance use. These studies represent an important body of literature indicating that parenting and family context may in part account for the risk for negative outcomes faced by children of substance abusing parents. However, this conclusion requires greater attention to genetically informed samples that can differentiate such environmentally mediated risk mechanisms from shared genetic factors in parents and their children that also underlie this pattern of findings.

Infants who are exposed to substances prenatally or whose parents abuse substances postnatally tend to develop insecure attachment styles (e.g., 65,85,86). This risk may be particularly high in families where other mental health problems accompany parental substance abuse. Whether this risk is specific to parental substance abuse versus attributable to other co-occurring risk factors is less clear. Some studies show that parental alcoholism is unrelated to anxiety and depression in children after accounting for the stronger effects of parental depression or anxiety disorders 45,52. However, others have found a unique effect for parental alcoholism above and beyond cooccurring parental psychopathology in predicting children’s internalizing (i.e., anxiety and depression) and externalizing (i.e., aggression and delinquency) symptoms 5,6.

Behavioral Indicators of Alcoholism in Parents

They might assume the role of needing to take care of their parent, a role that can sometimes remain intact in later relationships. These may have been practical (like paying the bills) or emotional (like comforting your siblings when Mom and Dad fought). Now you continue to take responsibility for other people’s feelings or for problems that you didn’t cause. There are so many things that alcoholic families don’t talk about – to each other and especially to the outside world. When there are things so awful that they can’t be talked about, you feel there is something awful about you and that you’ll be judged and cast away. When you feel unworthy, you cant love yourself and you cant let others love you either.

Clearly, children of substance abusing parents vary in their risk for these negative outcomes. Families with two alcoholic parents showed greater risk for accelerated progression from alcohol use to disorder 15. Moreover, children of parents with alcoholism and co-occurring psychopathology also evidenced stronger telescoping effects than those whose alcoholic parents did not show comorbidity 15. Future studies that use bioassays may indicate differences in rates of risk for children of alcoholic and non-alcoholic parents.

Psychological Effects of Parental Alcohol Abuse

For these reasons, the need to target these children and their families as a vulnerable group is among the top health priorities identified by the Surgeon General in his 2007 report on underage drinking 9. Despite this clear need, few empirically-supported prevention programs target this at-risk population. Nonetheless, it is important to recognize that many children of substance abusing parents are resilient and show positive outcomes despite the risks to which they are exposed. Although some studies estimate that as many as half of these children will develop a substance use disorder by young adulthood, clearly the same number do not 10. It’s essential for you to identify the signs of abuse and neglect in households with alcoholic parents.