Parental alcoholism and co-occurring antisocial behavior: Prospective relationships to externalizing behavior problems in their young sons

The hypothesis that parental alcoholism and co-occurring antisocial behavio r would be indirectly linked to child externalizing behavior problems throu gh child lack of control, current levels of parent depression, family confl ict, and parent-child conflict was tested using manifest variable regressio n analysis. Participants were a community sample of 125 families with an al coholic father and 83 ecologically matched but nonsubstance abusing familie s involved in the first 2 waves of an ongoing longitudinal study (with 3 ye ars between each wave). All families had a biological son who was 3-5 years old at study onset. Results revealed that child lack of control mediated t he relation between paternal alcoholism and the son's subsequent externaliz ing behavior problems. Family conflict was a significant mediator of matern al and paternal lifetime antisocial behavior effects and father-son conflic t mediated paternal lifetime antisocial behavior effects. Study implication s are discussed within the context of parental socialization of antisocial behavior.