Personality Subtypes in Adolescent and Adult Children of Alcoholics (original) (raw)
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Personality characteristics of children of alcoholics
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1988
This study compared the personality characteristics of late adolescent and young adult children of alcoholics (COAs) with those of their peers and examined the extent to which personality differences are gender specific and are related to the gender of the alcoholic parent. Specifically, data derived from an alcohol survey of young college students (N = 860) were used to examine familial alcoholism and personality characteristics, including impulsiveness, self-depreciation, lack of tension, independence/autonomy, need for social support, directiveness, sociability, and other-directedness. Although COA respondents were similar to their peers on most personality measures, they were more likely to report greater self-depreciation. This difference in self-depreciation between COAs and their peers was greater for women than men. Women with an alcoholic father were significantly more likely than women with an alcoholic mother to report greater self-depreciation. Male COAs rated themselves significantly higher on autonomy than did their male peers, but the gender of the alcoholic parent had little effect on this variable.
Subtypes of Early Age Onset Alcoholism
Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 1993
Forty-three adolescents qualifying for a DSM-Ill-R diagnosis of alcohol abuse/dependence were classified according to the internalizing-externalizing behavior dimension. Two clusters were identified. The majority of subjects clustered into a group characterized by behavioral dyscontrol and hypophoria (history of suicide attempts) (cluster 2), whereas the other group was primarily featured by negative affect (cluster 1). Cluster 2 subjects demonstrated more severe alcohol and drug use-related problems, behavioral disturbances, and general psychopathology; lower prevalence of depressive disorders; and less severe anxiety disorders. These results, implicating two variants of adolescent alcohol abuse/dependence, suggest the need to tailor differential treatments to adolescents with alcohol abuse/dependence based on personality characteristics and clinical presentation.
Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 1997
Thirty nonalcoholic young (18 to 30 years) males with extensive multigenerational family histories of male alcoholism and 29 agematched, family history-negative controls completed a variety of traii personality questionnaires, participated in a competitive stress task (while sober and alcohol-intoxicated), and were assessed for self-report and laboratory drinking behavior. Low academic achievement, disinhibted personality (as measured by the P Scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire), and sensitivity to alcohol reinforcement were significant and powerful independent predictors of self-report (approximate = 0.40, p < 0.OOOl) and laboratory (approximate # = 0.20, p < 0.OOOl) drinking behavior. There seemed to be some specificity with respect to the facets of drinking behavior accounted for by each independent variable: low academic achievement and sensitivity to alcohol reinforcement were more related to quantity of alcohol consumption and frequency of excessive consumption, whereas psychoticism was more related to self-reported negative consequences with alcohol. A cluster analysis on three identitied correlates of drinking behavior indicated that the two experimental groups could be more accurately subdivided into three homogeneous types. Mukigenerational family history males were dispropottionately represented in two of these groups: one characterized by enhanced sensitivity to alcohol reinforcement and the other Characterized by high psychoticism scores and alcohol-related problems.
This study examined early behavioral outcomes among young children of alcoholics (COAs) as a function of differences in subtype of paternal alcoholism. Participants were212 children (106 girls and 106 boys, ages 3 through 8) and both of their biological parents. Families were characterized as antisocial alcoholics, nonantisocial alcoholics, and nonalcoholic controls. There were significant familial subtype group differences on parent report measures of children's total behavior problems, externalizing behavior, and internalizing behavior, and on measures of children's intellectual functioning and academic achievement. In all instances, COAs had poorer functioning than controls. In the behavior problem domain, but not for the domain of intellectual functioning, children from antisocial alcoholic families had greater problems than children from nonantisocial alcoholic families. In addition to the subtype effects, boys had higher levels of behavior problems than girls in all three areas, and older children had more internalizing problems than younger children. Maternal functioning pertaining to lifetime alcohol problem involvement and antisocial behavior also contributed to child subtype differences in internalizing behavior. Results indicate that, even at very early ages, male and female COAs are heterogeneous populations that are distinguishable by way of familial subtype membership, as well as distinguishable from their non-COA peers. Thus, findings underscore the need to consider the heterogeneity of alcoholism when looking at its effects on child development
The Relation of Personality to Alcohol Abuse/Dependence in a High‐Risk Sample
Journal of Personality, 2000
The current study had two goals. The first goal was to test the mediational role of young adult personality in the relation between parental alcoholism and young adult alcoholism. The second was to examine the associations between personality and alcohol use motives and reasons to limit drinking in order to explore possible mechanisms by which personality may influence alcohol abuse/dependence. Multilevel modeling techniques were used to analyze data obtained from a community sample of young adult children of alcoholics and demographically matched controls. Results revealed that young adult neuroticism and agreeableness each, in part, mediated the effect of parental
Evidence for Distinctive Personality Traits in Alcoholics
Addiction, 1974
A picture-pTeference test designed to measure ten traits believed to characterize alcoholics was admimstered to 106 alcoholics, 15 neurotics, and 80 normals. As predicted, alcoholics had higher scores on this test than normals or neurotics. The mean score of the nettrotics was virtually the same as the mean of the normals. Whatever is measured by this test reliably distinguishes alcoholics Jhm both neurotics and normals.
A prospective study of personality features predictive of early adolescent alcohol misuse
2010
populations. Fewer studies have clarified the robustness of personality dimensions in predicting early onset alcohol misuse in adolescence. The aim of this study was to examine the predictive utility of two prominent models of personality (Eysenck, 1975 and in the context of early alcohol misuse in adolescence. One hundred and ninety-two secondary school students (Mean age = 13.8 years, SD = 0.5) were administered measures of personality (Revised Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire -Abbreviated form; Temperament scale of the Junior Temperament and Character Inventory) and drinking behavior (quantity and frequency of consumption, Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) at Time 1. At 12 month follow-up, 127 students (88.5%) were retained. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed the dimensions of Psychoticism, Extraversion, Novelty Seeking, and Lie to be the most powerful predictors of future alcohol misuse in adolescents. Results provide support for the etiological relevance of these dimensions in the development of early onset alcohol misuse. Findings can be used to develop early intervention programs that target personality risk factors for alcohol misuse for high risk youth.
Family history of alcoholism and the stability of personality in young adulthood
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 2006
The authors examined the magnitude and durability of personality differences related to family history of alcoholism (FH) and the development of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) in late adolescence and early adulthood. Data were taken from a longitudinal sample (N ϭ 487; approximately half FH-positive [ϩ]) who completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (H. J. Eysenck & S. B. G. Eysenck, 1975) at 3 points spanning 11 years (participants were 18 years old at baseline). Hierarchical linear analyses showed that FHϩ participants had higher levels of neuroticism and psychoticism over the study period, independent of AUD. Despite relatively large mean decreases in neuroticism (as well as extraversion), the magnitude of the between-groups differences found at age 18 were maintained over the next decade. These changes thus reflect stable underlying differences in personality and not artifacts of higher rates of AUDs in FHϩ individuals, recently living in an alcoholic home, vulnerability to the developmental challenge of leaving home, and/or a developmental lag.
Behavioral Outcomes among Children of Alcoholics During the Early and Middle Childhood Years
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 1998
This study examined early behavioral outcomes among young children of alcoholics (COAs) as a function of differences in subtype of paternal alcoholism. Participants were212 children (106 girls and 106 boys, ages 3 through 8) and both of their biological parents. Families were characterized as antisocial alcoholics, nonantisocial alcoholics, and nonalcoholic controls. There were significant familial subtype group differences on parent report measures of children's total behavior problems, externalizing behavior, and internalizing behavior, and on measures of children's intellectual functioning and academic achievement. In all instances, COAs had poorer functioning than controls. In the behavior problem domain, but not for the domain of intellectual functioning, children from antisocial alcoholic families had greater problems than children from nonantisocial alcoholic families. In addition to the subtype effects, boys had higher levels of behavior problems than girls in all three areas, and older children had more internalizing problems than younger children. Maternal functioning pertaining to lifetime alcohol problem involvement and antisocial behavior also contributed to child subtype differences in internalizing behavior. Results indicate that, even at very early ages, male and female COAs are heterogeneous populations that are distinguishable by way of familial subtype membership, as well as distinguishable from their non-COA peers. Thus, findings underscore the need to consider the heterogeneity of alcoholism when looking at its effects on child development
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 2002
Objective: The search for an alcoholic personality has been pursued with varying enthusiasm throughout the 20th century. This paper reviews the methodological issues, research designs and current theories relating alcoholism and personality. Method: A selected literature search using computerised databases was ordered via the four major research design strategies: cross sectional studies, high-risk studies, longitudinal studies and genetic epidemiology studies. Results: Cross sectional studies have suggested that two broad bands of personality, impulsivity/novelty seeking and neuroticism/negative emotionality, are associated with alcoholism. Although high-risk studies have repeatedly shown that sons of male alcoholics are at increased risk of alcoholism, whether this risk is related to personality variables is unclear. Many authors believe that the presence of antisocial personality disorder is a confounder and that this may explain some of the contradictory findings. Longitudinal s...