CHILDHOOD PSYCHOPATHOLOGY IN CHILDREN FROM FAMILIES OF ALCOHOLIC FEMALE PROBANDS

Objective: To determine the prevalence of DSM-III disorders among chil dren who had been selected for study based on their maternal family hi story of alcoholism (either multigenerational alcoholism in the case o f the high-risk group or no alcohol dependence in first- and second-de gree relatives in the case of the control children). Method: Thirty-fo ur boys and 42 girls with a mean age of 11.3 years (range 8 to 18) wer e evaluated. An equal number of children comprised the high- and low-r isk groups and were gender- and age-matched using a yoked control desi gn. Results: The highrisk children manifested more psychiatric diagnos es overall, and significantly more internalizing disorders than contro ls. The relative odds of a high-risk child's having a diagnosed disord er were increased when the child lived with a biological mother and a custodial father (biological, step, or adoptive) who were both alcohol ic. This relationship was exacerbated by the child's being older than 13 years of age. Conclusions: Vertical transmission of maternal alcoho lism is manifested in childhood and adolescence by the presence of inc reased psychopathology. This psychopathology occurred in offspring of alcoholics screened for major comorbidity, suggesting that it is unlik ely that the increased psychopathology is due to cotransmission of aff ective or other psychopathology. The elevated risk of psychopathology in association with having an alcoholic mother was not further increas ed by the child's being older than 13 years of age, ii the father (cus todial or only biological) was not alcoholic.