Children Of Alcoholics
The topic I chose for the research assignment is children of alcoholics. I chose to focus more on the children that are involved in families of alcoholics rather than on the family as a whole, because I felt there would be too much information. Because I grew up in a stable, relatively normal family, I chose to research a topic in which I did not have experience with. The participants that I chose for the interview are people that I know to have problems with parental alcoholism. Both of the interviewees are mature enough to reflect upon their childhood experiences, and are also still dealing with them to a point. The male participant is a friend of my sister, and the female participant is my roommate. I will discuss the research that I have done on children of alcoholics and then I will discuss the interviews.The National Association for Children of Alcoholics reports that there are an estimated 11 million children of alcoholics under the age of eighteen in the United States ("Children of Alcoholism: Important facts"). Additionally the association states that "almost one in every five adult Americans lived with an alcoholic while growing up" ("Children of Alcoholism: Important facts"). These
In the 1970's, researchers and other professionals began to look deeply into the "impact of parental alcoholism on children" (Jacob and Seilhamer 168). This began to open America's eyes to the dangers of being a child of an alcoholic. Although research on this issue has relatively just started, concern for these unfortunate children has been documented as far back to the time of Aristotle (Jacob and Seilhamer 168). The gin epidemic in England during the 1700's sparked concern due to "high infant morbidity and mortality" (Jacob and Seilhamer). Problems associated with being the child of an alcoholic regained national attention in the past 25 years with the formation of such groups as the National Association for Children of Alcoholics, and programs for treatment and prevention such as Al-Ateen (Jacob and Seilhamer 168). The amount of attention that is paid to studying and trying to help children of alcoholics indicates how much of a problem it is. Lindy Boggs, former Congresswoman and chairperson of the Task Force of Crisis Intervention once remarked, "Alcohol abuse seemed to be connected to and exacerbate, so many problems that American families and their children face" ("Alcohol Abuse and its Implications for Families"). In order to gain a more personalized perspective on being a child of an alcoholic, I conducted two interviews. It is important to understand that not all families that have an alcoholic member of the family are the same. I learned this first hand from the interviews that I conducted. Thibault, Jackie. Personal Interview. 27 Nov. 1999. Emberger, Christopher. Personal Interview. 25 Nov. 1999. Even in children that do not suffer from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, there are other detriments associated to being in a family with a history of alcoholism. Corral et al. "observed lower performance in children with a family history of alcoholism than in children with out alcoholic relatives in attentional, visiospatial, and frontal tasks" (509). In addition, developmental difficulties may be expressed in a child of an alcoholic and include "elevated motoric activity, attention deficits, reactivity, impulsivity, and anxiety" (Hussong et al. 453). Again, all of these outcomes are an added stress on the family of the child.
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Approximate Word count = 3689
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page double spaced)
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