Parental alcoholism, child abuse, and adult adjustment

Parallel findings in the adult children of alcoholics (ACOA) and child abus e literatures are integrated and extended by assessing long-term adjustment and childhood histories of parental alcoholism and sexual, physical, and e motional abuse in college students (N = 333). Abuse histories were most str ongly related to adult symptom distress and social maladjustment. Parental alcoholism had no independent effects when controlling for abuse history. P arental alcoholism interacted with abuse history in relation to social adju stment, exacerbating the effects of emotional abuse. This study adds to a g rowing literature calling for move complex models of ACOA development that can account for the diversity of this population.