Vol. zy 21, No. zy 1 February 1997 Alcohol Use Disorder among Adolescents: Impact of Paternal Alcoholism on Drinking Behavior, Drinking Motivation, and Consequences zy Ralph E. Tarter, Levent Kirisci, and Duncan B. Clark This study examined the impact of an Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) in biological fathers on drinking history, context, motivation, and con- sequences in male and female adolescents dichotomized according to the presence or absence of an AUD. Main effects for paternal history of an AUD were not found on any variable. Significant inter- actions were observed between father-son diagnostic status with respectto age of first alcohol use zyxwvutsrq (p < 0.001) and peer relationships zyxwvuts (p < 0.001). No significant interactions were observed between fa- ther-daughter diagnostic status. As expected, adolescents with AUD differed zyxwvutsrq from adolescents without AUD on numerous variables pertaining to drinking behavior, history, and consequences. These findings indicatethat there is no strong or pervasiveeffect of pater- nal AUD on adolescent offspring's AUD characteristics. Key Words: Adolescence, Drug Abuse, Alcoholism, Family History. T IS well-established that an Alcohol Use Disorder &AUD) in fathers augments the liability for AUD in biological offspring. 1-4 Results of studies on children of men with AUD also suggest that the paternal contribution to offspring's liability may be in part expressed as psychi- atric di~turbance~.~ and deviations on personality and be- havioral trait^.^ In addition, offspring of alcoholic men, as a group, have been reported to score lower on tests of intel- lectual and cognitive capacity compared with children of nonalcoholic fathers,8 although the results are not consis- tent across studies.' Furthermore, emerging evidence sug- gests that the paternal contribution to liability is highest among offspring whose fathers' AUD have an early age onset.""' Despite numerous studies demonstrating that paternal AUD augments risk for this disorder in their children, there is no information regarding the impact of paternal AUD on the natural history and consequences of alcohol involvement among adolescent offspring who manifest cur- rent AUD. Whereas cognitive, behavioral, and psychiatric From the Center zyxwvutsrqp for Education and Drug Abuse Research, University zyxwvutsr of Pittsburgh Medical School and St. Francis Medical Center (R.E. T., L.K.), and the Pittsburgh Adolescent Alcohol Research Center (0. B. C.), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Received for publication May 10, 1996; accepted October 21, 1996. This study was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse centergrant DA 05605 and National lnstitute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism grant AA08746. Reprint requests: Rabh Tarter, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry ( WPlC), University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 381 1 0 'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. Copyright zyxwvutsrqp 0 1997 by The Research Sociev on Alcoholism. Alcohol Clin Exp Res, Vol21, No 1, 1997: pp 171-178 disturbances have been reported in children of alcoholics, there is no available evidence demonstrating that paternal AUD impacts on natural history, severity of consequences, and pattern of consumption among adolescents who them- selves qualify for a current AUD diagnosis. It was hypoth- esized that paternal AUD, due to both genetic and familial environmental contribution to AUD liability, is associated with more rapid development of AUD in offspring as well as more pervasive drinking related problems and deterious consequences. In view of findings pointing to a genetic influence on sensitivity to and dependence on alcoh01,'~~'~ and results from numerous investigations demonstrating dysfunctional family interactions and disruptive home environment where there is an alcoholic it was hypothesized that a more rapidly developing and severe disorder would be observed among AUD adolescents who had an alcoholic father compared with AUD youth whose fathers did not have AUD. METHODS Subjects The probands consisted of 362 adolescents. The subjects were dichot- omized according to the presence or absence of a DSM-111-R diagnosis of AUD. Within each group, the adolescent subjects were further subdivided according to the presence or absence of a lifetime DSM-111-R diagnosis of AUD (abuse or dependence) in the father. Four groups were thus formed: (1) paternal negative and adolescent negative for AUD (males = 56; females = 94); (2) paternal negative and adolescent positive for AUD (males = 23; females = 21); (3) paternal positive and adolescent negative for AUD (males = 39; females = 52); and (4) paternal positive and adolescent positive for AUD (males = 49, females = 28). Table 1 sum- marizes the personal and demographic characteristics of the four groups. The four groups differed on age (F = 15.17,~ < 0.001) and socioeconomic status (F = 4.90, p < 0.002). Consequently, these variables were statisti- cally controlled in all of the analyses. Intelligence quotient was not differ- ent between the groups (F = 1.48, not significant). Adolescents having current AUD (abuse/dependence) were recruited from a variety of clinical and community sources, including treatment programs, a telephone sampling frame used by a market research firm, and advertisement. The sampling frame was developed by a local market research firm based on the likelihood that an adolescent resided in the home. The first contact with the family was directed at determining whether they would be interested in participating in the study. If the answer was affirmative, the family name and telephone number were provided to the project. A subsequent telephone call by project staff ascertained preliminary appropriateness for participation and scheduled the subject for study. Subjects deemed to have a history of neurological 171