A new study by David Flora, PhD of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (now at York University), and Laurie Chassin, PhD of Arizona State University, revealed that parental alcoholism represents a risk factor for "maladaptive behaviors" that extend beyond alcoholism and into illicit drug use in adulthood.
Previous research has associated parental alcoholism with early onset drinking in young people and with presistent, lifetime alcohol abuse. This new study is the first to show an association with parental alcoholism and illicit drug use as well as alcohol abuse.
Flora and Chassin monitored 545 adolescents over a 15-year period for drug use to compare patterns of drug use between children of alcoholics and children of non-alcoholics into adulthood.
The researchers found that children of alcoholics maintained consistent levels of drug use throughout their youth and into adulthood. By age 25-30, children of alcoholics had levels of drug use "substantially higher" than children of non-alcoholics.
Getting Married Reduces Risk
Many young people who experiment with drugs "mature out" by age 30 and their drug use declines, but Flora and Chassin found that children of alcoholics did not follow that typical trend.They also found that getting married reduced the level of drug use for both children of alcoholics and children of non-alcoholics, but children of alcoholics in the group were less likely to get married, so they continued their level of drug use into young adulthood.
Source: The article "Changes in Drug Use During Young Adulthood: The Effect of Parent Alcoholism and Transition Into Marriage" by David Flora, Ph.D., York University; Laurie Chassin, Ph.D., Arizona State University was published in Psychology of Addiction Behaviors, Vol. 19, No.4. in January 2006.
