A Study on Parents` Drinking Behaviors and the Mental Health of Their Adolescent Offsprings

Abstract

Purpose: This present study was conducted to investigate the mental health of adolescent offsprings affected by their parent’s drinking behavior.

Method: The subjects were collected by convenient sampling comprised of 317 first grade middle school boys and girls. The instruments of the study were the Korean Version of the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test(CAST-K) originally developed by Jones(1983) and modified for Koreans to classify adolescents according to their parents’ drinking behaviors and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revision(SCL-90-R) originally developed by Derogatis(1977) to assess the mental health of adolescents.

Results: Subjects were classified into three groups; Nondrinking-parents group(40.8%), Social drinking-parents group(34.5%), and Problem drinking-parents group(24.7%). Adolescents whose parents were problem drinkers had significantly higher scores on all the subcategories of SCL-90-R than those whose parents were nondrinkers. Adolescents whose parents were problem drinkers and social drinkers had significantly higher scores on the anxiety sub-scale of SCL-90-R than those whose parents were nondrinkers.

Conclusion:, This study revealed that drinking behaviors of parents affected the mental health of their adolescent offspring. Further studies to exam the long-term effects of parents’ drinking on the offsprings’ health and to develop intervention studies for promoting mental health are suggested.