Parental alcoholism and co-occurring antisocial behavior: prospective relationships to externalizing behavior problems in their young sons.
The hypothesis that parental alcoholism and co-occurring antisocial behavior would be indirectly linked to child externalizing behavior problems through child lack of control, current levels of parent depression, family conflict, and parent-child conflict was tested using manifest variable regression analysis. Participants were a community sample of 125 families with an alcoholic father and 83 ecologically matched but nonsubstance abusing families involved in the first 2 waves of an ongoing longitudinal study (with 3 years between each wave). All families had a biological son who was 3-5 years old at study onset. Results revealed that child lack of control mediated the relation between paternal alcoholism and the son's subsequent externalizing behavior problems. Family conflict was a significant mediator of maternal and paternal lifetime antisocial behavior effects and father-son conflict mediated paternal lifetime antisocial behavior effects. Study implications are discussed within the context of parental socialization of antisocial behavior.
Loukas
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Department of Kinesiology & Health Education, University of Texas at Austin, 78712, USA. alexandra.loukas@mail.utexas.edu
Fitzgerald
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Zucker
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von Eye
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D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology*; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D005219:Father-Child Relations; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D010552:Personality Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors