[Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST) and influence of parent's drinking on their children].
The Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST) is a 30-item screening instrument developed to identify children who are either living with or have lived with alcoholic parents. The Japanese edition of CAST and a questionnaire on parent's drinking were administered; 572 samples of high school students and 44 samples of advanced nursing school students were obtained. The following observations were made. 1) The CAST exhibited a high level of reliability (Cronbach's alpha coefficient of internal consistency reliability = .92, reliability coefficient theta computed on principle component analysis = .92, test-retest reliability coefficient p = .96). 2) All of the 30 questions of CAST elicited affirmative responses of varying degrees, and none of the questions were found to be incongruous. 3) Factor analysis was performed to detect the potential structure model of the CAST 30 items. It revealed that the CAST is composed of and able to check, in order of relative weight, the cognitive > emotional > behavioral experiences. 4) 17.7% of the total CAST sample scored six and over, which is the score that serves as the cutoff point to identify the children of alcoholics. 5) The average CAST score of female students was found to be significantly greater than that of male students (p = 0.008). On each of the 30 items, female students had a higher rate of answering affirmatively than male students, and on 13 items (item number 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 16, 19, 20, 22, 23, 28) were found to differ significantly. 6) The CAST score of the sample was found to be significantly related to the frequency of the father's drinking, and compared to male students, female students were more sensitive to and affected more seriously by their father's drinking.
Yamazaki
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Saitama Comprehensive Mental Health Center.
D000293:Adolescent; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology*; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D010290:Parents; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D011594:Psychometrics