The broad objective of this research program has been to develop an empirically based understanding of alcoholics and their families, and in so doing, to contribute to the methodological, descriptive, and predictive goals of the field. To this end, the project's past 19 years have involved in-depth assessments of 287 families, including individual, marital, parental, and whole family measures. Initial assessments include psychiatric and family history assessments, videotaped laboratory interactions under drinking and nondrinking conditions, audiotaped home interactions, a variety of interview and questionnaire self reports, and neurological and academic assessments of children. Five and ten year follow-up assessments have been completed on the first samples (50 families of male alcoholics, 50 families of male depressives, 50 families of non-distressed social drinkers), and a five year follow-up has been completed on the second samples (37 families of female alcoholics, 50 families of female depressives, and another 50 families of male alcoholics). The proposed four-year renewal involves completion of a parallel ten year follow-up assessment of the psychiatric/personality, drinking, and psychosocial status of the second samples, as well as further assessment of offspring in the first samples who have now attained adult life roles. Comprehensive interview and questionnaire procedures will be gathered from parents, offspring, and spouses of married adult children, with a projected data base over 1600 individuals.
Specific aims i nclude examination of: 1) predictor domains that moderate and/or mediate the nature and severity of adult child outcomes; 2) effects related to gender of affected parent, gender of offspring, and subtype of alcoholism exhibited by the affected parent; 3) intergenerational relationships of adult offspring and family of origin, and the impact of these relationships on drinking and nondrinking outcomes; 4) risk factors and developmental pathways specific to depressive disorders; and 5) further, complex sequential analyses of naturalistic observational data given the recent completion of detailed coding of all observational data in the second samples.
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