This is an application to follow-up a sample of 490 children of alcoholics (COAs) and children of nonalcoholic (nonCOAs) assessed as freshmen in 1987- 1988, and at three successive yearly follow-ups. The proposed fourth follow-up (Wave 5) is scheduled to take place from 6/93-12/94, two-to-three years after graduation (for those subjects who completed their education in four years) when these subjects are, on average, 24-25 years old. The fifth wave of data collection will reassess subjects on key psychosocial variables measured at previous symptomatology, life stress, motivations for alcohol use, work and family status) as well as developmental issues of early adulthood. Thus, additional follow-up assessment will yield valuable information on persistence and change in drinking patterns and problems following college, especially as it relates to family history of alcoholism, gender, personality, alcohol expectancies, and other risk factors. Further analysis of the four previous waves and the proposed additional wave of data will address the following goals; (a) Identification of biopsychosocial variables (neurocognitive, personality, and attitudinal) that mediate family history risk for alcohol use disorders in young adults, and evaluation of statistical models of mediation that best account for the relations among family history, potential mediators, and pathological alcohol involvement. (b) Identification of potential gender differences in these mediational models. (c) Determination of the comparability of these mediational models across other problem outcomes related to family history of alcoholism (e.g., drug abuse, depression). (d) Development of longitudinal typologies of drinking patterns, and the correlates of these typologies (esp. correlates with known risk factors such as family history, gender, antisociality). (e) Further evaluation of the prevalence of a range of Axis I, DSM-III(-R) diagnoses in a young adult sample of COAs and nonCOAs, and gender differences in these rates, as the cohort enters into adult roles. (f) Determination of the prevalence of comorbidity between alcohol use disorders and the major Axis I DSM-III(-R) disorders and antisocial personality disorder, as well as gender differences in these rates. (g) Evaluation of the effect of comorbid Axis I disorders and antisocial personality disorder on the course of alcohol use disorders in young adulthood. Thus, the proposal examines the mechanisms underlying the intergenerational transmission of alcoholism, the nature and course of drinking problems in young adulthood, and the range of consequences of having an alcoholic father in young adults.
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