Pathways of risk for accelerated heavy alcohol use among adolescent children of alcoholic parents

The current study examined two questions. First, do internalizing symptoms and externalizing behavior each mediate the relations between parent psycho pathology (alcoholism, antisocial personality disorder, and affective disor der) and growth in adolescent heavy alcohol use? Second, are there gender d ifferences in these mediated pathways? Using latent curve analyses, we exam ined these questions in a high-risk sample of 439 families (53% children of alcoholic parents; 47% female). Collapsing across gender, adolescent-repor ted externalizing behavior mediated both the relation between parent alcoho lism and growth in heavy alcohol use and the relation between parent antiso ciality and growth in heavy alcohol use. Parent-reported externalizing beha vior only mediated the relation between parent antisociality and growth in heavy alcohol use in males. No support was found for internalizing symptoms as a mediator of these relations. Avenues are suggested for further explor ing and integrating information about different mediating processes account ing for children of alcoholics' risk for heavy alcohol use.