If one or more parents continue drinking heavily as the child is growing up, this can also have negative consequences. In 2019, around 14.5 million people ages 12 and older in the United States were living with this condition, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Seeking support from others who’ve been in your shoes is extremely helpful during the healing process.
Interpersonal Effects
Oftentimes, children of parents struggling with AUD don’t get to act as “children” at home. Ordinary events such as playdates, parent-teacher conferences, and sporting activities—which can typically strengthen the bond between a parent and child—become sources of anxiety and humiliation. Inviting friends over the house can prompt shame because they could be embarrassed by their parent’s behavior, or they may feel the need to keep their how alcoholic parents affect their children parent’s alcoholism a secret. Hagströma and Forinder’s findings also revealed two major narrative positions. On the one hand, the children framed themselves as vulnerable victims forced to navigate their parent’s alcoholism, which often encompassed severe neglect, domestic violence, and sexual abuse. They described feeling powerless, without resources to cope with distress and risk, and a desperate need for protection and care.
Children’s sensitivity to their parents’ praise could affect their future mental health
This could be related in part to the behavior issues among children of parents with an AUD. Children of parents who misuse alcohol are at higher risk for anxiety, depression, and unexplained physical symptoms (internalizing behaviors). They are also more likely to display rule-breaking, aggressiveness, and impulsivity (externalizing behaviors) in childhood. Some adult children of parents with AUD take themselves very seriously, finding it extremely difficult to give themselves a break. If they had a tumultuous upbringing, they may have little self-worth and low self-esteem and can develop deep feelings of inadequacy. Alcohol abuse is a medical problem that can lead to other health issues.
Treatment Options
This can lead to early acquisition and elaboration of knowledge about alcohol use, even among children as young as preschool age. Research by Dishion and Loeber in 1985 highlights the importance of parental monitoring in preventing adolescent substance abuse. When parents are under the influence of alcohol, their ability to effectively monitor their children’s activities diminishes significantly. Not engaging in disordered substance use or not having a diagnosable mental health condition doesn’t make someone’s potential trauma or negative experiences any less valid, nor does it make those who have developed disorders weaker.
- These dysfunctional family dynamics and trauma exact a heavy psychological toll on the child, who may respond to these stressors in different ways.
- Alcohol abuse is a medical problem that can lead to other health issues.
- Significant difference was found in the domains of symbolic punishment, rejecting, objective punishment, demanding, indifferent, symbolic reward, loving and neglecting.
- These groups provide a safe space for family members to share their experiences, offer emotional support, and learn from one another.
When their parent cannot care for them during active addiction, the child’s survival instincts may kick in, causing them to become prematurely independent. The children’s stories also demonstrated competence, in which they employed effective strategies to cope with the myriad of challenges wreaked by their parent’s alcoholism. Hagströma and Forinder found that these coping strategies changed as the participants grew from children to adolescents, and to adults with increasing independence from their parents.
Instead of going to the playground with friends, they might be caring for a younger sibling or searching for their next meal. In other words, a child of an alcoholic father or mother grows up fast and learns how to fend for themselves. In order to pursue this inquiry, Hagströma and Forinder analyzed the narratives of 19 children between the ages of six and eleven. The participants were enrolled in a psycho-educational program in the 1990s for youngsters living with parents who struggled with alcohol (these data were part of a longitudinal study). When parents turn to alcohol as a means to deal with stress, emotional pain, or other life challenges, they inadvertently teach their children that this is an acceptable way to cope with difficulties. This form of coping is not only ineffective but also potentially harmful, as it doesn’t address the root cause of the stress and can lead to a cycle of dependency.
- If the mother drank while pregnant, they could even be a victim of fetal alcohol syndrome, which carries through childhood and into adulthood.
- Having a parent with alcohol use disorder as a child can have negative effects, such as your own issues with alcohol as an adult — but that’s not always the case.
- Finally, with the administrative register data, we were not able to examine familial dysfunctions, such as various kinds of child maltreatment, that also adversely affect children [36].
- These issues can take root physically or psychologically, and consequences can last through adulthood.
- Moreover, as we only had data on biological parents, we do not know whether the child was living in a family or not where a social parent, such as the mother’s or father’s new spouse, abuses alcohol.
- Socio-demographic characteristics of children of alcoholic and non-alcoholic parents are given in Table 1.