The proposed study uses data from a 1985 nationally representative sample of 6002 American families (National Family Violence Survey), including an oversample of Hispanic and Black families and panel data collected in 1986 and 1987 on a stratified subsample of 1408 violent nad non-violent families. It enables a longitudinal examination of marital conflict and assaults in alcohol abusing families compared to other families in the general population. A unique feature of the data is the typology of family alcohol use such as: 1) Husband only is a high user 2) Wife only is a high user 3) Both partners are high users and 4) Neither partner is a high user. LISREL analyses of 3 major causal models will analyze the relationships between social class, race, family type and family of origin for each family alcohol use type. The major dependent measures are: 1) marital conflict and physical aggression between marital partners, 2) the mental well-being of adult family members; 3) parental use of aggression and child abuse and 4) child behavior problems. The major questions to be examined include the following: 1. Do certain high alcohol use patterns serve to enhance conflict resolution techniques in families? 2. What are the effects of different family patterns of alcohol use? 3. How do family problems vary in alcohol abusing families according to race, class, family type, family of origin, and sex of the alcohol abuser? 4. To what extent do occupational class differences and job stress account for alcohol and marital conflict in minority families? 5. What is the reciprocal relationship between alcohol use, job stress and family conflict? 6. Do families with one or more alcohol abusing members differ according to the level of conflict and manner of conflict resolution from non-alcohol abusing families? 7. What are the effects of parental alcohol usage and marital conflict on child abuse and child behavior patterns? 8. What factors mediate between family alcohol abuse and adverse consequences for the children of families in conflict? 9. Is conflict per se just as important a precipitant of children's dysfunctional behavior, and children's victimization as parental alcohol abuse? Because the research uses a general population sample, the information can be used to help guide prevention and early intervention programs and can contribute theoretically to understanding alcohol abuse in American families.
| Straus, M A; Kantor, G K (1994) Corporal punishment of adolescents by parents: a risk factor in the epidemiology of depression, suicide, alcohol abuse, child abuse, and wife beating. Adolescence 29:543-61 |
