The Indirect Effects of Parent Psychopathology on Offspring Affective Disorder Through Difficulty During the Leaving Home Transition.

The current study examined risk for young adult affective disorder in the children of parents with alcohol use disorders (AUDs), and tested whether negative experiences during the leaving home transition mediated this effect. Using multiple reporter data from a high-risk community sample, the current study included 346 emerging adults (M = 21.97 years old; 49% female, 72% non-Hispanic Caucasian, and 47% with at least one alcohol-disordered parent) from a large metropolitan area. We found that offspring of parents with AUDs were more likely to have negative experiences during the leaving home transition, which in turn predicted increased risk of affective disorders in adulthood. Parents with alcohol disorders may attempt to limit their children's independence from the family of origin or fail to appropriately scaffold their leaving home transition, which is an important developmental task, placing children of alcohol-disordered parents at greater risk of affective disorders in adulthood.

Do executive and reactive disinhibition mediate the effects of familial substance use disorders on adolescent externalizing outcomes?

The present study examined the potential mediating roles of executive and reactive disinhibition in predicting conduct problems, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, and substance use among adolescents with and without a family history of substance use disorders. Using data from 247 high-risk adolescents, parents, and grandparents, structural equation modeling indicated that reactive disinhibition, as measured by sensation seeking, mediated the effect of familial drug use disorders on all facets of the adolescent externalizing spectrum. Executive disinhibition, as measured by response disinhibition, spatial short term memory, and "trait" impulsivity, was associated with ADHD symptoms. Moreover, although executive functioning weakness were unrelated to familial substance use disorders, adolescents with familial alcohol use disorders were at risk for "trait" impulsivity marked by a lack of planning. These results illustrate the importance of "unpacking" the broad temperament style of disinhibition and of studying the processes that underlie the commonality among facets of the externalizing spectrum and processes that predict specific externalizing outcomes.

The reciprocal influences of perceived risk for alcoholism and alcohol use over time: evidence for aversive transmission of parental alcoholism.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined how perceived risk for alcoholism and alcohol use influenced each other over time. We hypothesized an aversive transmission mechanism, by which some children of alcoholics may reduce their drinking because they perceive themselves to be at risk for future alcohol problems because of their parents' alcoholism. METHOD: Using participants (N = 804, 47% female) from an ongoing longitudinal study of children of alcoholics (e.g., Chassin et al., 1991), we examined the reciprocal prospective relations between perceived risk for alcoholism and drinking across three measurement occasions, and also tested whether perceived risk for alcoholism mediated the effect of perceived parental alcoholism on subsequent drinking. RESULTS: Mediation analyses provided evidence for aversive transmission, in which the effect of perceived parental alcoholism on alcohol use during young adulthood was decreased to the extent that perceived parental alcoholism predicted higher levels of perceived risk for alcoholism during emerging adulthood. Results indicated reciprocal effects between perceived risk for alcoholism and drinking over time, such that higher levels of perceived risk were associated with lower levels of drinking. Results were replicated using both self-report and collateral-report of alcohol use, and using both actual and perceived parental alcoholism. CONCLUSIONS: Young adults may avoid drinking when they perceive their parent(s) to be alcoholic, and consequently perceive themselves to be at elevated risk for alcoholism. Given that beliefs about risk for alcoholism are potentially modifiable, increasing self-perceived risk for alcoholism may be one feasible way to reduce the intergenerational transmission of alcohol disorders within families.