Association between Psychological Characteristics of Adult-Children of Alcoholics and Psychosocial Problems

알코올중독자 가정 청소년 자녀의 성인아이성향과 심리사회적 문제

To examine association between psychological characteristics of Adult-Children of Alcoholics and psychosocial Problems was a purpose of this study. The data were collected on a written questionaire completed 765 adolescents who were consisted of children of alcoholic and nonalcoholic parents. Parental alcoholism was established using CAST and psychosocial problems were assessed by Youth Self Report. Psychological characteristics of ACOA were identified by Adult Children of Alcoholics Screening Test. This study showed that children of alcoholics possess distinct psychological characteristics and they have experienced a variety of psychosocial problems. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted in order to determine the extent to which characteristics of ACOA affected on psychosocial problems. As a results, psychological characteristics of ACOA were significantly associated with them after controlling for the correlates of family structure, level of family functioning, and parental alcoholism. In addition, two group of ACOA were created on the basis of scores of ACAST. High-risk group had significantly higher YSR scores than low-risk group and it revealed that clinical intervention was needed for many adolescents in high-risk group. The results underscored the importance of ACOA syndrome in adaptation of children with alcoholic parents and suggested the need of future research focusing on development process of subtypes of ACOA.