Labeling the child of an alcoholic: negative stereotyping by mental health professionals and peers.

Although the establishment of programs for children of alcoholics (COAs) is laudable for those who are in distress, the effects of identifying and labeling COAs have largely been unknown. These studies investigated the possibility of negative stereotypes toward COAs emanating from peers and from the mental health community. In Study 1, 570 high school students were asked to rate six separate roles (typical teenagers--male and female; teenagers with an alcoholic parent--male and female; and mentally ill teenagers--male and female) using 11 bipolar adjective pairs. Subjects rated "COAs" as significantly different overall from both "typical teenagers" and "mentally ill teenagers." When individual nonsignificant differences occurred, COAs were more often grouped with mentally ill teenagers. These correlational findings were extended in an experimental study (Study 2) using mental health workers (N = 80). Subjects watched videotapes of an adolescent who was described as having either a positive or negative family history of alcoholism and as having either a high degree of social success (school leader) or social problems (behavior problems). The adolescent targets labeled COA were judged as more pathological than those labeled non-COA in terms of current and predicted psychological health and psychopathology. These judgments held regardless of the teenagers' labeled current behavior. Both studies demonstrated robust negative stereotypes about COAs both from the COAs' peers and from those responsible for treating COAs. The potentially harmful consequences of labeling COAs--especially those who are currently well-adjusted--are discussed.

Predictors of psychopathology in children of patients with major affective disorders.

The present study reports on variables associated with psychopathology in children of patients hospitalized with major affective disorders. The primary instrument used in this investigation was a structured diagnostic interview that was completed by a child psychiatrist. Univariate and multivariate statistical analyses of these data suggest that severity of parental psychopathology (as measured by a higher score on the SCL-90 and a longer stay in the hospital) and the report of child abuse were associated with general childhood psychopathology. The significance of these and other findings are discussed.

Differential effect of subtype of parental major affective disorder on children.

Fifty offspring of patients with major affective disorder (MAD) were studied. The children and their parents were interviewed using a structured diagnostic instrument. The results supported previous studies that the children of patients with MAD endorse a variety of symptoms of psychopathology. In addition, when the sample was separated by subtype of parental MAD, few differences in the types of symptoms were reported, and the differences that were found may be spurious. The differences, as well as indications for future research, are discussed.

Depressed children of depressed parents.

Fifty children whose parents had a diagnosis of affective disorder were given a structured diagnostic interview by a child psychiatrist. The parents were also interviewed about their children. Fourteen per cent of the children were found to be depressed. Compared to the remaining children, the depressed children endorsed significantly more symptoms of attention deficit disorder, oppositional disorder, mania, overanxious disorder, phobia, and bulimia in the interview. The parent's interview disclosed that the depressed children were abused significantly more than the non-depressed group.