Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Abstract: Parental relationships are important in the development of young adults, especially when examining if the child was raised with familial traumas such as divorce or death of a parent (Balázs et al., 2017; Lee et al., 2020; O’Connor et al., 2000). Additionally, whether a child was raised by biological parents, adoptive parents, or some other parental situation can have a large impact on later in life mental illnesses and psychological problems, especially when it comes to substance abuse (Askeland et al., 2018; Hoffmann, 2017; Sánchez-Sandoval & Melero, 2019). There is substantial research on how experiencing family turbulence or trauma can impact an adolescent’s mental health while they are still living with their parents, but little on how this impacts young adults who are beginning to live in the world on their own. Similarly, research on adoptive children and their overrepresentation in mental health fields focuses mostly on adolescents rather than young adults. This research aims to close the gap by introducing more information about how childhood parental structure and relationships can effect a young adult’s mental health problems, with specific focus on alcohol abuse and/or dependence by examining the 1st Wave of the National Epidemiologic Study of Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) survey. It was found that there is a significant association between both family structure, specifically when it comes to children of adoptive parents, and family turbulence, specifically when it comes to children who experienced parental divorce, and later in life drinking problems. There is also a significant association between age and developing drinking problems, with those between the ages of 18 and 29 being the most at risk group. As such, more attention needs to be paid to children experiencing family turbulence or growing up in unorthodox family structures while they are adolscents or young adults to ensure that they receive the support and treatment they need once they are living on their own. However, it is important to consider that the data used in this research is about 20 years old now. Further research will need to be conducted with more recent data to validate any findings put forward by this research.
The-Relationship-Between-Alcohol-Abuse-and-or-Dependence-and-Childhood-Family-Status