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Cited by 115Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentSubstance Abuse Treatment and OutcomesChild Abuse and Trauma

Parental alcoholism and co-occurring antisocial behavior: prospective relationships to externalizing behavior problems in their young sons

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Loukas, Alexandra, Fitzgerald, Hiram E., Zucker, Robert A., von Eye, Alexander·2001·Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
DOI 10.1023/a:1005281011838
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Abstract

The hypothesis that parental alcoholism and co-occurring antisocial behavior would be indirectly linked to child externalizing behavior problems through child lack of control, current levels of parent depression, family conflict, and parent-child conflict was tested using manifest variable regression analysis. Participants were a community sample of 125 families with an alcoholic father and 83 ecologically matched but nonsubstance abusing families involved in the first 2 waves of an ongoing longitudinal study (with 3 years between each wave). All families had a biological son who was 3-5 years old at study onset. Results revealed that child lack of control mediated the relation between paternal alcoholism and the son's subsequent externalizing behavior problems. Family conflict was a significant mediator of maternal and paternal lifetime antisocial behavior effects and father-son conflict mediated paternal lifetime antisocial behavior effects. Study implications are discussed within the context of parental socialization of antisocial behavior.

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  • Adverse family factors shape long-term propensities to act in particular ways, increasing the likelihood of undercontrolled/disinhibited and impulsive behavior.

    “They also shape long term propensities to act in particular ways—i.e., they shape personality—specifically by increasing the likelihood that behavior will be undercontrolled/disinhibited (cf. Zucker et al., 2011) and impulsive (cf. Loukas et al., 2001; Wills et al., 2017).”

    From Assessment of culture and environment in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study: Rationale, description of measures, and early data (2018) · cites this paper as Loukas et al., 2001

    The Discussion (page not available) reports that paternal alcoholism was associated with sons’ deficits in emotional and attentional control, which predicted later externalizing problems. The paper also discusses impulsivity in sons of alcoholics, but it does not establish that adverse family factors shape long-term personality or specifically cause impulsivity. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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  • Family conflict mediates the relationship between parent substance use and child externalizing behavior, the most potent non-specific behavioral risk for substance abuse.

    “Furthermore, family conflict mediates the relationship between parent substance use and child externalizing behavior, the most potent non-specific behavioral risk for substance abuse (El-Sheikh and Flanagan, 2001; Loukas et al., 2001).”

    From Assessment of culture and environment in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study: Rationale, description of measures, and early data (2018) · cites this paper as Loukas et al., 2001

    The Results report that family conflict mediated the association between parental antisocial behavior and sons’ later externalizing problems, not the association with parental alcohol problems; child lack of control mediated the latter. The paper also does not establish that externalizing behavior is the most potent non-specific behavioral risk for substance abuse. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Cites

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2 of the 83 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 8

  1. Billings, A. G., & Moos, R. H. (1983). Comparison of children of de- pressed and nondepressed parents: A social-environmental perspec- tive. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 11, 463-486.
  2. Moos, R. H. (1974). Family Environment Scale: Form R. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
  3. Mun, E. Y., Fitzgerald, H. E., Puttler, L. I., Zucker, R. A., & von Eye, A. (in press). Specificity of child temperament: Predictors of external- izing and internalizing behavior problems in the contexts of high and low parental psychopathology. Infant Mental Health.
  4. Patterson, G. R., & Capaldi, D. M. (1991). Antisocial parents: Unskilled and vulnerable. In P. A. Cowan & E. M. Hetherington (Eds.), Family transitions. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates.
  5. Sobel, M. E. (1986). Some new results on indirect effects and their stan- dard errors in structural equation models. In N. Tuma (Ed.), Soci- ological methodology (pp. 159-186). San Francisco, CA: Jossey- Bass.
  6. Zucker, R. A. (1994). Pathways to alcohol problems and alcoholism: A developmental account of the evidence for multiple alcoholisms and for contextual contributions to risk. In R. A. Zucker, J. Howard, & G. M. Boyd (Eds.), The development of alcohol problems: Explor- ing the biopsychosocial matrix of risk (NIAAA Research Mono- graph 26). Chapter 13 (pp. 255-289).
  7. In M. E. Chafetz (Ed.), Proceedings of the First Annual Alcoholism Conference of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alco- holism. Research on alcoholism: I. Clinical problems and special populations (pp. 276-296). Rockville, MD: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
  8. Zucker, R. A., Fitzgerald, H. E., & Moses, H. D. (1995). Emergence of alcohol problems and the several alcoholisms: A developmental perspective on etiologic theory and life course trajectory. In D. Cicchetti & D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology: Volume 2. Risk, disorder, and adaptation (pp. 677-711). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

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Authors
Loukas, A., Fitzgerald, H. E., Zucker, R. A., & von Eye, A.
Affiliations
  • The University of Texas at Austin (US)
  • Michigan State University (US)
  • University of Michigan (US)
Corresponding author
Loukas, Alexandra
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2001-04
Volume
29
Issue
2
Pages
91-106
ISSN
  • 0091-0627 (ISSN-L)
  • 1573-2835
DOI
10.1023/a:1005281011838
OpenAlex
W1503677365
Cited by
115
References
83
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 11
FWCI
5.68
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Deep Blue (University of Michigan) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (5t32mh018387-28)
  • National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R01AA007065)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (T32-MH18387, MH18387)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
Keywords
parental alcoholism, antisocial behavior, externalizing problems, family conflict, parent-child conflict, parental depression, father-son conflict, mediation
MeSH terms
Alcoholism, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Child, Child Behavior Disorders, Child, Preschool, Conflict, Psychological, Depressive Disorder, Father-Child Relations, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Internal-External Control, Male, Mother-Child Relations, Personality Assessment, Risk Factors, Child of Impaired Parents

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