Article: Johnson, V. & Pandina, R.J. (1991). Familial and personal drinking histories and measures of competence in youth. Addictive Behaviors, 16, 453-465.
This study compared three groups of adolescents with differential histories of familial drinking pattens on 26 different measures of personal and social competence at three different points in their lives (ages 12, 15, and 18). The three groups represented the following family histories: (1) families with a history of alcoholism; (2) families with a history of heavy drinking; and (3) families with no symptoms of alcoholism or alcohol misuse.
One thousand three hundred and eighty families were recruited by telephone contact using stratified random sampling techniques. Approximately 83 percent of those contacted agreed to participate in the research (by allowing their children to complete the survey instruments) over the six year period during which data were collected.
All data were collected by field interviewers at prearranged places over the six year period. Subject mortality in the study was only 8 percent. Thus, the final number of subjects participating in all phases of the longitudinal design was 1,270.
Chi square analyses and analyses of variance were used to determine whether the three family history groups differed on any of the 26 measures of personal and social competence at the three different points in time. Based on existing research, the authors hypothesized that competency measures would differ in relation to differences in family history as well as in relation to age differences.
Only five measures of personal and social competence were found to be significantly related to differences in family histories of drinking behavior with the largest competence deficits being found in the group of adolescents with a family history of alcoholism. The fewest deficits were observed for the group with no histories of familial alcoholism or alcohol a
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