Paternal Alcoholism, Parental Psychopathology, and Aggravation with Infants

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of paternal alcohol problems, antisocial behavior, and depression in predicting parental attitudes toward their 12-month-old infants. Families were recruited from birth records and the final sample consisted of 216 families, 101 in the control group and 115 families with alcoholic fathers (92 with light drinking partners and 23 with heavy drinking partners). Results indicated that fathers' alcoholism was associated with higher paternal aggravation with the infant. Further, fathers' depression mediated the relationship between fathers' current alcohol problems and aggravation. Fathers' alcoholism was indirectly associated with maternal aggravation and warmth through the relationship with maternal antisocial behavior and depression. Results suggest that at least during early infancy, parental psychopathology associated with fathers' alcohol problems may play a more important role in predicting parental attitudes toward their infants than alcoholism per se. Results are further discussed in terms of their implications for parenting and later development among infants of alcoholics.

Section snippets

Participants

The participants were 216 families with 12-month-old infants who were recruited for an ongoing longitudinal study of parenting and infant development. Families were assigned to one of two major groups: the control group consisting of parents with few current alcohol problems (n=101), and the father alcoholic group (n=115) consisting of alcoholic fathers and two groups of mothers, those who had few current alcohol problems (n=92), or those who had a number of current alcohol problems or were

Demographics and Gender Differences

The first set of analyses focused on group differences on demographic variables like family income, parental education, parental age, number of work hours, and parity. The analyses indicated significant effects of group status on fathers' education, F(1,214)=7.40, p<.01, and maternal age, F(1,214)=5.71, p<.05. Alcoholic fathers were less educated (M=14.16 and 13.07, SD=3.31 and 2.56 for control and alcoholic groups, respectively) and had younger partners (M=31.51 and 30.16, SD=4.33 and 3.96 for

Discussion

Several studies on non-alcoholic populations have suggested the importance of parental attitudes for parenting behavior and child outcomes Goldberg and Easterbrooks, 1984, Cox et al., 1992. However, virtually nothing is known about the impact of parental characteristics like alcoholism and antisocial behavior on parental attitudes during infancy. The results from this study indicate that fathers' alcohol problems and associated characteristics like antisocial behavior and depression play a

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the parents and infants who participated in this study and the research staff who were responsible for conducting numerous assessments with these families. Special thanks to Ellen Edwards for her contributions as Project Administrator. This study was made possible by grants from NIAAA (#1RO1 AA 10042-01A1) and NIDA (1K21DA00231-01A1).

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