A Comparison of the Home and Social Environments of Children of Alcoholic and Non‐alcoholic Parents

Summary The home environments of 32 children of alcoholic parents and 22 children with neither parent alcoholic are compared. The home environments of the children of alcoholics show diminished global functioning. In particular they are characterized by marital conflict, parent‐child conflict, poor adaptive functioning on the part of the parents and in some cases by physical abuse. Out of the 32 children with alcoholic parents, a majority of the children received 1 or more DSM‐III diagnoses. A comparison of the home environments of the children of alcoholics with and without psychiatric diagnoses shows that the homes of the ‘disturbed’ children are characterized by a greater exposure to the effects of parental drinking, more parent‐child conflict and less parent‐child interaction than the homes of children who received no diagnoses.