Personality characteristics of sisters and spouses of male alcoholics.

Sisters of alcoholics from high-density multigenerational families were assessed to determine personality characteristics. Spousal similarity was evaluated in proband/spouse pairs and in spouse pairs from the parental generation, allowing for comparisons of selection versus contagion as explanations for this similarity. Sisters were found to differ from control women with respect to Alienation and Social Closeness from the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire, and Scale 6 (Paranoia) from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Only spouses from the parental generation were similar on Alienation, suggesting that exposure over time (contagion) leads to greater similarity in parents from High-Risk families. Modest correlations in spouse pairs from both generations suggest that assortative mating for Social Closeness occurs among the parents of these individuals from High-Risk families, and further suggest that a diminished level of Social Closeness for sisters of alcoholics may be mediated in part by additive genetic variance. It is concluded that assortative mating for particular traits may contribute to increased risk for alcoholism. Also, failure to mate assortatively for other traits (e.g., Traditionalism, Harm Avoidance) may also contribute to increased rates in High-Risk families.