The Effects of Parental Alcoholism on Children Until rather recently, the impact of alcoholism was measured by its effect on the alcoholic, by days lost from work and highway fatalities. New research, however, has tended to concentrate on the impact of alcoholism on the family, especially the children of alcoholics. Numerous studies have reported on the familial transmission of alcoholism. It has been shown that alcoholics have more biological relatives with an alcohol problem than do nonalcoholic. Furthermore, these people have a higher probability for developing alcoholism earlier in their lives; and experiencing more severe effects of alcoholism.

There are in the vicinity of twenty million children under eighteen years of age whom are growing up in households where one or both parents are alcoholic, in the United States alone. These children are the unwilling victims of a disease which generally

In many ways, childhood is abbreviated for children whose parents are alcoholics. They learn to parcel out feelings to avoid upsetting the alcoholic parent or to avoid being held responsible for triggering about of parental drinking. The manner in which the child relates and responds is too often determined by the state of the alcoholic, which can be rather unpredictable. The entire family is, in fact, engaged in a struggle to control an uncontrollable situation. As a result, the methods utilized by affected children to cope with their parent’s alcoholism initiates a variety of behavior which inevitably proceeds into adulthood. The related problems of behavior and adaptation often are not distinguishable for ten or twenty years. Even in maturity, these individuals tend to be unable to trust their own perceptions or feelings. Often, they continue to deny that anything is wrong.

is the center of their childhood existence, and therefore shapes their personality and behavior as adults. Because of the familial nature of alcoholism children have been identified to be of high risk for developing this illness. Unless something is done to break the patterns initiated during childhood, a significant percentage of those who don’t become alcoholics themselves will marry an alcoholic upon reaching maturity continuing the cycle of abuse and depression.

Many alcoholics authentically believe that their alcoholism is hidden. This is further complicated by the fact that problem drinking is in part a function of the definition of oneself

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