Until rather recently, the impact of alcoholism was

measured by its effect on the alcoholic, by days lost from

work and highway fatalities. New research, however, has

tended to concentrate on the impact of alcoholism on the

family, especially the children of alcoholics. Numerous

studies have reported on the familial transmission of

alcoholism. It has been shown that alcoholics have more

biological relatives with an alcohol problem than do

nonalcoholic. Furthermore, these people have a higher

probability for developing alcoholism earlier in their

lives; and experiencing more severe effects of alcoholism

There are in the vicinity of twenty million children

under eighteen years of age whom are growing up in

households where one or both parents are alcoholic, in the

United States alone. These children are the unwilling

victims of a disease which generally is the center of their

childhood existence, and therefore shapes their personality

and behavior as adults. "Because of the familial nature of

alcoholism children have been identified to be of high risk

for developing this illness" (Merikangas p.199). Unless

alcoholism is hidden. This is further complicated by the

such a situation tend to insist to their children that their

from school, poorer academic and social performance in

Consequently, the children of alcoholic parents are

the child of an alcoholic parent generally learns to go

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Approximate Word count = 1049
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)