Little is known about processes that mediate parental drinking and child outcomes or developmental differences in children's socioemotional functioning in relation to parental drinking problems. Marital conflict has consistently been found at increased rates in alcoholic homes and several studies have implicated (yet have not established) marital conflict as a primary mediating variable in the association between parental alcoholism and child problems. The proposed studies examine children's emotional responses to a primary stressor for children from alcoholic and high-conflict homes, namely interadult conflict, as a function of parental drinking problems and parental marital conflict. COAs, noncoAs from high-conflict homes, and noncoAs from low-conflict homes will be recruited. in Study #1, 288 children between the ages of 6 and 11 years will participate in two well established experimental procedures in which their emotional responses (physiological, behavioral, and verbal) to audiotaped and videotaped interadult angry and aggressive interactions will be examined in conditions in which they think that the adult male in these interactions has consumed either Whiskey (intoxication-expectancy manipulations) or 7-UP. The main question addressed is how children's emotional responses to the simulated interactions are influenced by the child's family background, sex, age, and expectations of alcohol consumption by others. The general hypotheses are: (1) marital conflict will mediate parental drinking and children's emotional responding; (2) in comparison to noncoAs, COAs will exhibit higher reactivity to anger in the intoxication-expectancy condition; and (3) COAs in the intoxication-expectancy condition will exhibit more reactivity to anger and will report higher expectancies of violence following interadult conflict than COAs in the sobriety-expectancy condition. Study #2 will entail a 24-month longitudinal investigation of the same C0As, and some of the noncoAs (16 from each of the high- and low- conflict groups), who participated in Study#1, and will involve their participation in the same experimental procedures listed in Study#1. Of particular interest is the impact of changes in frequency of both parental drinking and marital conflict in mediating stability and change in children's emotional functioning and reactivity to interadult anger. Because there is evidence that child problems decline if either marital conflict declines or if alcoholic parents recover, examining how these trajectories influence children's emotional responding may further understanding of the emotional processes in children who are exposed to parental drinking as well as to high rates of anger and family stress. The research may contribute knowledge that lays the groundwork for identifying vulnerability and protective factors in COAs, and for intervention programs for children at risk for emotional and behavioral disturbances.
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