DO YOUNG-CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS HOLD MORE POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE ALCOHOL-RELATED EXPECTANCIES THAN CONTROLS

Alcohol-related expectancies and alcohol use were examined in 185 chil dren of alcoholics (COAs) end controls, aged 7 to 18 years. Concerning the expectancies of young COAs, two contrasting hypotheses have been proposed: COAs should hold more negative expectancies than controls du e to aversive learning, or hold more positive expectancies due to eith er social learning or a more favorable response to alcohol. We propose that COAs of elementary school age hold more negative expectancies du e to aversive learning, whereas older COAs hold more positive expectan cies due to a more favorable response to alcohol. The critical variabl e with respect to the change from more negative to more positive expec tancies is proposed to be the child's own initiation of alcohol use. T he results of the present cross-sectional study provide suggestive evi dence in favor of this hypothesis. First, elementary school-aged COAs had stronger negative expectancies than controls. Second, the hypothes ized interaction between family history and own experience with alcoho l was confirmed in the adolescent subsample. The proposed model should be critically tested with longitudinal data. If confirmed, the model may be of importance for prevention of alcohol-related problems in hig h-risk populations.