Longitudinal relations between parental drinking problems, family functioning, and child adjustment

Peggy S. Keller, E. Mark Cummings, Patrick T. Davies, Patricia M. Mitchell

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

97 Scopus citations

Abstract

Relations between maternal and paternal problem drinking symptoms and destructive marital conflict, parenting problems, and children's internalizing and externalizing problems were investigated. Participants were community families with a child in kindergarten who completed questionnaire measures at baseline (N = 235), 1 year later (N = 227), and 2 years later (N = 215). Structural equation modeling revealed that paternal problem drinking at Time 1 was associated with greater destructive marital conflict 1 year later. In turn, destructive marital conflict was related to decreased parental warmth and increased parental psychological control; these parenting problems were associated with greater child internalizing and externalizing problems at the third time point. Further analyses revealed that the indirect effects of paternal drinking on children's adjustment were significant, and that relations remained even after including autoregressive effects. Findings are discussed in terms of family process models for relations between parental drinking and child adjustment problems.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)195-212
Number of pages18
JournalDevelopment and Psychopathology
Volume20
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2008

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Psychiatry and Mental health

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