Effects of alcohol intoxication on parenting behavior in interactions withchild confederates exhibiting normal or deviant behaviors

Experimental analogue methods were used to study how acute alcohol intoxica tion in parents influences their perceptions of and reactions to child beha viors, as well as their strategies for management of those behaviors. All p articipating parents had a grade school-aged son, but in half the cases thi s target child had a diagnosed externalizing disorder, whereas for the rema ining half neither the target son nor any other offspring of the parents ev idenced any psychopathology. Equal numbers of married fathers, married moth ers, and single mothers from each of these groups received either alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverages prior to videotaped interactions with male child confederates who, depending on condition, enacted behaviors characteristic of either normal boys or boys with attention deficit hyperactivity/conduct /oppositional defiant disorders (ADHD/CD/ODD). Results indicated that intox icated parents rated their ADHD/CD/ODD child partners as less deviant than did sober parents. Alcohol intoxication caused all participant groups to ex hibit less attention and productive work and more commands, indulgences, an d off-task talk in the interactions. Implications for better understanding of the role of psychosocial factors in the correlation between adult drinki ng problems and childhood behavior disorders are discussed.