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Combined role of childhood maltreatment, family history, and gender in the risk for alcohol dependence.

ABSTRACT: Studies of the relationship between childhood maltreatment and alcohol dependence have not controlled comprehensively for potential confounding by co-occurring maltreatments and other childhood trauma, or determined whether parental history of alcohol disorders operates synergistically with gender and maltreatment to produce alcohol dependence. We addressed these issues using national data. Method Face-to-face surveys of 27 712 adult participants in a national survey.Childhood physical, emotional and sexual abuse, and physical neglect were associated with alcohol dependence (p<0.001), controlling for demographics, co-occurring maltreatments and other childhood trauma. Attributable proportions (APs) due to interaction between each maltreatment and parental history revealed significant synergistic relationships for physical abuse in the entire sample, and for sexual abuse and emotional neglect in women (APs, 0.21, 0.31, 0.26 respectively), indicating that the odds of alcohol dependence given both parental history and these maltreatments were significantly higher than the additive effect of each alone (p<0.05).Childhood maltreatments independently increased the risk of alcohol dependence. Importantly, results suggest a synergistic role of parental alcoholism: the effect of physical abuse on alcohol dependence may depend on parental history, while the effects of sexual abuse and emotional neglect may depend on parental history among women. Findings underscore the importance of early identification and prevention, particularly among those with a family history, and could guide genetic research and intervention development, e.g. programs to reduce the burden of childhood maltreatment may benefit from addressing the negative long-term effects of maltreatments, including potential alcohol problems, across a broad range of childhood environments.

SUBMITTER: Fenton MC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3767412 | biostudies-literature | 2013 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Combined role of childhood maltreatment, family history, and gender in the risk for alcohol dependence.

Fenton M C MC Geier T T Keyes K K Skodol A E AE Grant B F BF Hasin D S DS

Psychological medicine 20120810 5

<h4>Background</h4>Studies of the relationship between childhood maltreatment and alcohol dependence have not controlled comprehensively for potential confounding by co-occurring maltreatments and other childhood trauma, or determined whether parental history of alcohol disorders operates synergistically with gender and maltreatment to produce alcohol dependence. We addressed these issues using national data. Method Face-to-face surveys of 27 712 adult participants in a national survey.<h4>Resul ...[more]

PMID: 22883538

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Project description:BackgroundExisting survey measures of childhood trauma history generally fail to take into account the relational-socioecological environment in which childhood maltreatment occurs. Variables such as the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim, the emotional availability of caregivers, witnessing the abuse of others, and the respondent's own thoughts, feelings, and actions in response to maltreatment are rarely assessed by current measures.MethodsTo address these concerns, the current study further investigated the family dynamics of childhood maltreatment using the Childhood Attachment and Relational Trauma Screen (CARTS) in 1,782 persons assessed online.ResultsPaired differences in means between item-rated descriptiveness of self, mothers, and fathers suggested that respondents' relationship with their biological fathers was less positive and secure than their relationship with their biological mothers, and that biological fathers were more often the perpetrator of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse than biological mothers. However, results further suggested that ratings between self, mothers, and fathers were positively correlated such that, for example, reports of a mother's or a respondent's own abusive behavior were more likely in the presence of reports of a father's abusive behavior. In addition, analyses evaluating witnessing violence demonstrated that fathers were rated as more often violent toward mothers than the reverse, although intimate partner violence was also frequently bidirectional. Analyses of sibling ratings further demonstrated that older brothers were either as or more frequently abusive when compared with parents. Finally, results suggested that childhood emotional, physical, and sexual abuse were much more often perpetrated by family members than extra-familial and non-family members.ConclusionsIn so far as these findings are consistent with the prior childhood trauma and attachment literature, the current study further supports the utility of the CARTS as a means of assessing the family dynamics of childhood attachment and maltreatment within a relational-socioecological framework.

Dataset Information

Combined role of childhood maltreatment, family history, and gender in the risk for alcohol dependence.

Publications

Combined role of childhood maltreatment, family history, and gender in the risk for alcohol dependence.

Similar Datasets

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