Date of Award

January 2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Alan King

Abstract

Associations between parental alcoholism and internalized and externalized indicators of maladjustment in adult children of alcoholics were examined. College students (N = 2,531) and respondents from the general population (N = 703) provided self-reports of various internalized and externalized indicators of maladjustment. Several hypotheses were tested: (1) CAST scores will be positively associated with symptom severity; (2) Combined maternal and paternal alcoholism will be associated with the most severe maladjustment compared to ACAs from a single parent and/or non-ACAs; (3) Male ACAs will exhibit relatively more externalized symptoms than internalized symptoms and female ACAs will exhibit relatively more internalized symptoms than externalized symptoms; (4) Paternal alcoholism will be more strongly associated with externalized symptoms as opposed to internalized symptoms, particularly among male ACAs, and maternal alcoholism will be more strongly associated with internalized symptoms as opposed to externalized symptoms, particularly among female ACAs. Overall, consistent with previous literature, the present study found mixed results regarding the relationship between differential gender effects on ACAs risk of various internalized and externalized maladjustment indicators; however, our results from both samples provide further evidence that ACAs, regardless of gender and/or ACA status, appear to be at increased risk of both internalized and externalized forms of maladjustment compared to non-ACAs.

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