The relationships of a family history of alcohol dependence, a low level of response to alcohol and six domains of life functioning to the development of alcohol use disorders

Objective: Numerous biological and sociocultural factors have been proposed as potentially important to the risk for alcohol use disorders. This study evaluates the relationships to alcohol abuse or dependence of several addi tional potential trait and state characteristics when studied in the contex t of a family history of alcohol dependence (FH) and the level of response (LR) to alcohol. Method: Data were generated from the successful 15-year fo llow-up of 97% of 453 sons of alcohol dependent men and controls: of these, 315 men were appropriate for the current analyses. Personal interviews wer e used to gather data from the subjects and additional informants to study the relationships among FH, LR as determined 15 years previously, and retro spective rat -ings over the recent 15 years for six additional domains of l ife functioning. These were evaluated as correlates of a diagnosis of an al cohol use disorder in both a 3-step hierarchical and a 7-step structured se ries of regressions for the subjects with complete data. Results: LR, FH an d measures from all of the domains except stress had significant zero-order correlations with alcohol abuse or dependence. The hierarchical regression revealed that LR and FH remained significant when considered in the contex t of the five remaining domains. Both trait-like characteristics (behaviora l undercontrol, alcohol expectancies and ways of coping) and state-like dom ains (nurturance in the social support system and the amount of drinking in the environment) added significantly to the analyses. A heuristic model of the relationship among these variables was tested in a structured series o f regressions with a final R-2 of 0.22. Future prospective study of the off spring of these subjects will help evaluate potential causal implications o f these findings. Conclusions: Prospective studies, measuring both biologic al and environmental factors, are needed for optimal understanding of the p erformance of such characteristics in real-life conditions.