Citation

Harburg E, DiFranceisco W, Webster DW, Gleiberman L, Schork A. J. Stud. Alcohol 1990; 51(3): 245-256.

Affiliation

Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1990, Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2342364

Abstract

The "fall-off" effect, when offspring respond to parental high-volume levels by moderating their own drinking, appears highly predictable across generations and is mediated both by subsequent parent drinking level and offspring's perception of problematic intake by their parents. This fall off by adult offspring appears to follow community norms; it occurs, on the average, at the level of daily drinking by fathers, and when the mother approaches daily-drinking levels. An aversion effect holds more to cross-sex parents with problems; thus, both sons and daughters show a nonimitation and fall off to their cross-sex parents who are high-volume problem drinkers. Conversely, however, daughters often imitate a high-drinking father with no problems. For high-drinking mothers, without problems or with problems (numbers are small), daughters' drinking appears "polarized": most (60%) are abstemious, but a higher number than expected (about 35%) show high volume thus imitating the mother's volume, compared to about 17% of the total sample of daughters who were high-volume drinkers. Maximal offspring imitation is strongest for abstemious parents, especially for abstaining parents, and stronger for fathers abstaining than for mothers.

Language: en