This report will examine the link between two concepts: parental alcohol use and child abuse/problems. Scholarly information sources overwhelmingly agree that as a parent/guardian increasingly uses alcohol, their child has an increasing chance of being physically/mentally abused and/or having more problems than children raised by non-alcoholic parents. The Mental and physical abuse variables result in sub-concepts such as: Serious coping problems, lower IQ and test scores, greater delinquency, higher depression, and negative self image. .
http://www.childabuse.com/fs14.htm.
Research on the connection between parental alcoholism and child maltreatment clearly indicates a connection between the two. 40% of all confirmed cases of child maltreatment involve the use of alcohol by the parent. Due to a study that found that there are 1.2 million confirmed victims of child maltreatment each year, it is estimated that 480,000 of these cases involve the use of alcohol by the adult guardian. .
A 1999 study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse found that .
children of substance-abusing parents were almost three times likelier to be abused .
and more than four times likelier to be neglected than children of parents who are not .
substance abusers.
http://alcoholism.about.com/library/blnaa09.htm.
A report from the NIAAA estimated that 6.6 million children under the age of 18 live in the same household as at least one alcoholic parent. This research report also indicates that alcoholism tends to run in families, not only from seeing parents drink, but also from genetics. .
Questions that need to be answered are: Do alcoholic parents have a negative effect on their child's current and future life? Are children of alcoholics different from children that do no have alcoholic parents?.
