The Damage of an Alcoholic Parent on a Child: Developmental Setbacks

Posted by editor in Alcohol Addiction on May 4th, 2010 | one response

It is estimated that across the United States around 6.6m children live in homes with at least one parent who is an alcoholic.  Research from scientists’ shows that these children are at a greater risk of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral problems  later in life as well as a threat that they may have a vulnerability for developing alcoholism themselves later in life.

alcoholic parents The Damage of an Alcoholic Parent on a Child: Developmental SetbacksOne of the reasons that children develop problems if one parent is an alcoholic is that outside of having a poor relationship with the parent that drinks, there is oftentimes a great deal of marital conflict and instability in the house.  Additionally, if the parent that drinks faces legal problems as a result the child must cope with acknowledging a parent as an authority source who they know is in trouble with an authority they were taught to respect.  This may lead them to act out against authority as well as a result.

In a study that looked at children who were raised by alcoholic fathers versus those who were not, those that had the presence of an alcoholic father in their life overall scored lower on a verbal test as well as lower on a performance reasoning test and IQ test.  In a closer look, these children also had lower reading, verbal, and arithmetic scores.

One reason that researchers believe the children may perform poorer, is because overall children of alcoholics do not have a high degree of faith in their abilities and self-confidence.  Additionally, their mothers also underrated their abilities to perform which undercuts the result as a psychologically problem that the presence of an alcoholic parent may create.

Outside of academic performance, children that are from families with an alcoholic parent often have a variety of psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression, and symptoms of stress such as a bad self image.  They also are more likely to feel that they do not have control over their environment which makes teenage children more susceptible to drinking themselves, drug use, or eating disorders in order to attempt to stabilize and control their lives.

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One Response to “The Damage of an Alcoholic Parent on a Child: Developmental Setbacks”

  1. Rigoberto Rodkey says:
    September 4, 2010 at 2:41 am

    im on day 3 of the most difficult journey of my life so far and was looking for a little help along the way found this site . just reading that there are people out their in a similar situation to me but just that little bit further on gives me the strength to carry on.

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