University of Michigan.
Dev Psychopathol. 2019 May;31(2):771-788. doi: 10.1017/S0954579418000561. Epub 2018 Sep 19.
Children of alcoholics (COAs) are at risk for elevated internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Yet, little is known about the familial and behavioral adjustments of COAs following parental separation. Using an ecological-transactional framework, we examined how multiple risk factors contributed to the formation of different alcoholic family structures and how living in heterogeneous family structures affected COAs' behavioral problems. The Michigan Longitudinal Study, a multiwave study on initially intact alcoholic and control families with preschool-age children (n = 503), was used to evaluate outcomes of offspring, when families either remained intact or were separated when the child was aged 12-14. Alcoholic families who later transitioned into stepfamilies were characterized with higher paternal antisociality, marital aggression, and serious family crises than alcoholic families that remained intact. COAs in stepfamilies (but not in single-parent families) exhibited higher levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms in preadolescence compared with those in alcoholic intact families, in part because of elevated behavioral risk at age 3. Structural equation modeling indicated that the aggregated risk of stepfamily residence directly related to COAs' internalizing and indirectly related to COAs' externalizing problems, partially mediated by family stressors. Findings suggest targeting COAs in separated families for early intervention.
酗酒者子女（COAs）存在内化和外化症状加重的风险。然而，对于父母离异后 COAs 的家庭和行为调整，我们知之甚少。本研究采用生态交易框架，探讨了多种风险因素如何促成不同的酗酒家庭结构形成，以及生活在异质家庭结构中如何影响 COAs 的行为问题。密歇根纵向研究是一项针对学龄前儿童（n=503）的初始完整酗酒者和对照组家庭的多波研究，用于评估当孩子 12-14 岁时，家庭保持完整或离异的情况下，后代的结果。与保持完整的酗酒家庭相比，后来过渡到继父家庭的酗酒家庭具有更高的父亲反社会性、婚姻攻击性和严重的家庭危机。与酗酒完整家庭相比，处于继父家庭（而非单亲家庭）的 COAs 在青春期表现出更高的内化和外化症状，部分原因是 3 岁时的行为风险增加。结构方程模型表明，继父家庭居住的综合风险与 COAs 的内化问题直接相关，与 COAs 的外化问题间接相关，部分通过家庭压力因素中介。研究结果表明，应针对离异家庭中的 COAs 进行早期干预。
