This project will examine the psychiatric and social consequences of maternal alcoholism by conducting a controlled study of 215 offspring of alcoholic women and 135 offspring of their non-alcoholic sisters. The alcoholic women and their sisters were previously interviewed and diagnosed using well defined criteria as part of a family study of alcoholism conducted in 1967-1968 and were reinterviewed in 1979. The interviews with offspring will extend the family data to a second and in some cases third generation of alcoholic families. Psychosocial adjustment of offspring will be assessed including health status, educational and occupational achievement, marital stability, and characteristics of the spouse, role function, drinking patterns and attitudes and self-esteem. The NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule will be used to ascertain current as well as lifetime psychiatric disorders. Rates and types of disorders in offspring of alcoholic mothers will be compared to those occurring in offspring of non-alcoholic mothers and to a general population sample obtained from the St. Louis ECA project. The project will identify and measure factors that influence adult outcomes in offspring of alcoholic women by exploring the contribution of family psychiatric history, early home environment and selected social and demographic variables. Particular attention will be given to factors associated with successful outcomes. Identification of factors which increase or mitigate the risk of poor adjustment in adulthood will assist those working with alcoholic families and delineate targets for intervention which might increase treatment effectiveness.
| Smith, E M; Przybeck, T R; Bradford, S E et al. (1994) Adult offspring of alcoholic women as family history informants. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 18:1354-60 |
| Bidaut-Russell, M; Smith, E M; Bradford, S E (1994) Gender differences in lifetime psychiatric disorders between sons and daughters of alcoholic mothers: a pilot study. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 18:244-7 |
