Date of Award
10-1-1995
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Clinical Psychology
Abstract
The present study examined the quality of the early child-parent relationship as predictors of adult psychological adjustment of women raised in alcoholic and non-alcoholic homes. While alcoholic family systems are generally recognized as a major source of stress to a large segment of our society, few studies have been successful in identifying the essential factors which may account for the wide variability in the responses of children and adults to the early experiences of family alcoholism. It was predicted that parental alcoholism and increased levels of conflict and violence would contribute significantly to adjustment difficulties and that early positive parent child relationships would moderate the effects of parental drinking behavior on adult female psychological adjustment. It was also hypothesized that maternal drinking behaviors would produce greater adjustment difficulties for daughters.Two-hundred and twenty female undergraduate students responded to questionnaires examining the degree of conflict and violence in the home, degree of parental alcohol consumption and related behaviors, and retrospective perceptions of their relationship with both parents between the age of 5 and 10 years. Current psychological adjustment was examined by assessing depression and anxiety proneness, current alcohol consumption and related behaviors, and self-concept.Results revealed mixed support for these hypotheses. Support was found for the hypothesis that early parent-child relationship variables could account for later psychological adjustment in females. Relationship variables contributed to the prediction of 23 percent of the variance in subjects' depression proneness. Relationship variables were shown to explain less than 10 percent in each of the regression models built to predict anxiety proneness, drinking tendencies and self-concept. The absence of any interaction effects between alcoholic status and parent-child relationship variables resulted in a failure to confirm the hypothesis that parent-child relationship variables may mitigate the effects of parental drinking on adult psychological adjustment in females. These results are discussed and suggestions for future research are presented.
Recommended Citation
Bakke-Jumper, Bette, "Relationships between early parent-child variables and later psychological adjustment among female adult children of alcoholics and controls." (1995). Theses and Dissertations. 8971.
https://commons.und.edu/theses/8971