Parental problem drinking and children's adjustment: Family conflict and parental depression as mediators and moderators of risk

We examined marital conflict, parent-child conflict, and maternal and pater nal depression symptoms as mediators and moderators in the associations bet ween fathers' and mothers' problem drinking and children's adjustment. A co mmunity sample of 6-12-year-old boys and girls and their mothers, fathers, and teachers participated. Marital conflict, parent-child conflict, and mat ernal depression symptomatology each functioned as a mediator of the associ ation between father's problem drinking and children's externalizing and in ternalizing problems, and maternal depression symptoms accounted partially for the link between father's problem drinking and children's social proble ms. For mother's problem drinking, marital conflict, parent-child conflict, and maternal depression symptoms each mediated the association with childr en's externalizing problems. Further, parent-child conflict explained parti ally the link between mother's problem drinking and internalizing problems, and marital conflict accounted for the association between mother's proble m drinking and social problems. When the mediators were simultaneously exam ined, parent-child conflict was the most robust mediator of the association between parental problem drinking and externalizing problems, and maternal depression symptomatology was the most consistent mediator of the relation between parental problem drinking and internalizing problems. Further, par ent-child conflict and paternal and maternal depression symptoms each inter acted with parental problem drinking to moderate some domains of children's adjustment. The significant moderation effects indicate that parent-child conflict is a robust vulnerability factor for internalizing problems.