Parental history of alcoholism and problem behaviors in Native-American children and adolescents

BACKGROUND: A positive family history of alcoholism is one of the most consistent and powerful predictors of a person's risk for developing this disorder. This finding has stimulated much research on etiological vulnerability factors and mechanisms by which children of alcoholic parents are at high risk for developing alcohol-related problems. In primarily Euro-American samples, parental alcoholism has been associated with a variety of negative outcomes for children and adolescents, including problematic behavior. Native-American Indians, in addition to high rates of alcoholism and alcohol-related mortality, have the highest prevalence of a positive family history for alcoholism of all ethnic groups in the United States. METHODS: This study used the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) to evaluate behavioral problems in 96 Mission Indian children and adolescents based on the presence or absence of parental alcohol dependence and sex of the offspring. RESULTS: Consistent with previous research, results indicated a high prevalence of a positive family history of alcoholism in these Native-American youths. Seventy-four percent of the offspring had either one or both parents with alcohol dependence (children of alcoholics). Only 7% had no first- or second-degree alcoholic relatives. Results indicated that sons of alcoholics scored significantly higher on the Total Behavior Problem scale, as well as the Internalizing and Externalizing scales, of the CBCL than sons of nonalcoholics, whereas there were no significant differences in CBCL scores between daughters of alcoholics and daughters of nonalcoholics. It is noteworthy that scores on the CBCL for Mission Indian children of alcoholics were comparable to scores in the published literature of children of alcoholics of other ethnicities. In addition, a relatively low percentage of youths were identified with significant levels of behavioral problems. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that sons of alcoholics of Mission Indian heritage experience more problems than sons of nonalcoholics, but also suggest that Mission Indian children of alcoholics are not more vulnerable to behavioral problems than children of alcoholic parents of other ethnic backgrounds.