Early Childhood Dynamics

¶ … children whose parents are alcoholics shows those children are at risk for many problems, and that is of great interest to me. It is a very worthy bit of research because it has to do with alcohol abuse and how that condition impacts the ability of children to lead normal healthy lives. a) The article references the issues children experience when their parents are alcoholics including "…socioemotional" and "behavioral" problems (Edwards, et al., 2006, 409). b) Edwards, P.E., Eiden, R.D., Colder, C., and Leonard, K.E. (2006).

The Development of Aggression in 18 to 48-Month-old Children of Alcoholic Parents. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 54(3), 409-423. Part TWO -- Article Summary ONE: Introduction This research paper zeros in on the problems that children have whose parents are alcoholics. The study involved 226 families.

While it comes as no surprise that children whose parents are alcoholics have problems adjusting to life and society, it is nevertheless quite sad and pathetic to think of a child that is three or four years old (with parents drunk 7 days a week) experiencing antisocial behavior, negative experiences when at play, and being subjected to conflict between his or her parents. The parents in this study also suffered from depression.

That problem, along with parents whose education was limited, led to "higher levels of aggression at 18 months" than children whose parents were not chemically dependent on alcohol (Edwards, et al., 2006, 409). TWO: Research Methods: a) A survey using the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000); the UM-CIDI interview process; DSM-IV criteria was used; Infant Characteristics Questionnaire (ICQ) was used which "…yields four factors: Fussy-Difficult, Unadaptable, Dull, and Unpredictable…" is the research design; b) The authors selected 226 families from Erie County in New York State.

These families had 12-month-old infants to begin with, and there were 102 of the families that had few problems with alcohol and 124 families in which the father was an alcoholic. The researches visited these families and gathered data at 12 months and 18 months. 222 families also provide information at 24 months; 205 families offered data at 36 months; and 182 of the original 226 offered information at 48 months; c) the characteristics of the participants include: 94% of the mothers were Caucasian; 4% were African-American; 2% Hispanic or Native-American; 90% of fathers were Caucasian; 7% were African-American; 3% were Hispanic.

27% of mothers had college degrees; just 2% did not have a high school diploma; 33% of fathers had college degrees and 18% had some post-high school education. 88% of parents were married and mothers' ages ranged from 19 to 41 years;.