Parental Alcohol Use, Parenting and Child Developmental Functioning

Introduction:Few studies that examine the effects of parental alcohol use on child functioning consider the developmental context surrounding parent alcohol use. Furthermore, alcohol use occurring before individuals become parents may also be important to the later functioning of their children because it predicts less educational attainment and difficulty in the transition to adulthood, as well as continued alcohol use. This study examined whether parental alcohol use across life-span was related to their young children’s developmental functioning. Observed parenting practices and family SES were tested as potential explanatory mechanisms of these links. 

Methods: Data came from the Seattle Social Development Project and The Intergenerational Project (TIP), N=123, including 1-to-5-year-olds and their biological parents from the first three waves of TIP. Predictors included parental alcohol use variables indicating regular drinking before age 18, the frequency of gestational alcohol and tobacco use and maternal and paternal current alcohol use; maternal and paternal parenting skills based on observational data from the videotaped Parent-Child Interaction Task; and family low socioeconomic status indicated by parental educational attainment, low income, and welfare receipt. The outcome was the child developmental functioningbased on the Ages and Stages Questionnaire assessing on-time development in the domains of gross-motor, fine-motor, communication, problem-solving, and personal-social development. 

Results and conclusions: Results from a series of well-fitting path models suggest that the association between parental alcohol use and developmental functioning among 1-to-5–year-olds operates primarily through fathers’ alcohol use. Specifically, fathers’ adult alcohol use negatively predicted children’s developmental functioning. Furthermore, fathers who engaged in regular alcohol use in adolescence had higher alcohol consumption in adulthood. Thus, there was also an indirect association between fathers’ early alcohol misuse and children’s functioning. Additionally, father’s adolescent regular alcohol use predicted the family’s low socioeconomic status, which in turn predicted poorer maternal parenting practices and children’s functioning. Mothers’ adolescent regular drinking, prenatal drinking, and adult drinking were unrelated to their child’s functioning except, perhaps, as factors that influenced them to choose drinking partners. The results underscore the importance of prevention and intervention efforts aimed at reducing alcohol misuse in adolescence and young adulthood. Moreover, prevention and treatment programs providing support and education in parenting skills to families with history of alcohol misuse could show benefits across generations.