Familial loading for alcoholism and offspring behavior: mediating and moderating influences

Abstract

Background: Familial loading for alcoholism is an important marker of risk for early-onset alcohol problems, but the early expression of this risk in community samples of children is understudied.

Methods: This study tested, for 452 8- and 10-year-old children, whether the density of alcohol problems in their biological relatives was associated with externalizing behaviors that are risk factors for later alcohol problems.

Results: Density of alcohol problems in first- and second-degree biological relatives was associated with behavioral disinhibition (BD; e.g., poor inhibitory control, attentional shifting, β = 0.10, p = 0.04) and conduct problems (CP; i.e., defiance, aggression, delinquency, β = 0.18, p = 0.00). These relations were moderated by parenting practices (parental warmth, discipline consistency, and parental monitoring). The density-behavior association lost statistical significance when at least 2 of 3 parenting practices were rated above median levels for the sample (p = 0.67 to 0.36). The density-behavior association was mediated by current demographic advantage (p = 0.00 for BD, p = 0.00 for CP), current maternal mental health (p = 0.01 for BD, p = 0.00 for CP), and current maternal deviant behavior (for CP only, p = 0.01).

Conclusions: Findings support previously proposed but untested pathways in etiologic models of alcoholism and show the potentially important role of active parenting in reducing the expression of inherited vulnerability to alcoholism in childhood.

Figure 1

Two factor measurement model of child behavior. Note. All factor loadings are standardized and were statistically significant at p<.001 or less. Measured indicators and the bundled items are in boxes on the right; subscales are followed by their respective number of items and (M, α) indicating mother report and the associated Cronbach’s alpha, (T, α) for teacher report and the associated Cronbach’s alpha. For the CBCL and TRF, items were selected from the larger “Attention problems” subscale for their specificity (e.g., “can’t concentrate” and “daydreams” for Inattention, and “can’t sit still” and “impulsive” for Impulsivity-Hyperactivity). For ease of presentation, errors and their correlations are excluded from the diagram.

Figure 2

Moderation of density-behavior association by parenting practices. Note. All parameters are standardized parameter estimates. For the less effective parenting environment (Figure 2a), R² for BD=.03; R² for CD=.08. For the more effective parenting environment (Figure 2b), R² for BD=.00; R² for CD=.01. *p<.05. **p<.01.

Figure 3

Mediational pathways from familial alcohol problem density to child behavior through demographic advantage and current parent functioning. Note. For ease of presentation, only statistically significant paths (p<.05) are presented, and correlations among the mediators are shown in Table 1. All parameters are standardized parameter estimates. R² for BD=.17; R² for CD=.35. *p<.05. **p<.01.