Alcoholic Parents Affect the Life and Development of a Child

Alcoholism can cause emotional disengagement, and the family experiencing negative emotions and withdraws all together (Ackerman, 272). Each member of the family will react differently to the conditions that the alcoholic brings into the home, but there are a few things that can be identified that each member of the family will commonly experience. The spouse of the alcoholic will tend to try and shelter any children and deny any problems that they may face for their sake. They will shun the idea that the alcoholic has a problem and just keep living, but this can cause much more damage than it will save. Even though the spouse tries to ignore the problem, it still remains. Nothing will be solved and things will further worsen. When the spouse tries to deny all of the issues, they ultimately just isolate

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, seventy six million Americans have been exposed to alcoholism in the family. That means one out of four families is affected by an alcoholic, making alcoholism responsible for more family problems than any other single cause (Parsons). Alcoholism is a disease that not only affects the individual, but also everyone around the alcoholic. Alcoholics can make irrational decisions that are harmful not only to themselves but also to the people around them. These irrational decisions can cause financial instability for the household which, in turn, contributes to neglect.

Many people across the world suffer from alcoholism, a family disease. It is called a family disease because the addiction harms the alcoholic, and everyone who has to live with them. Children consistently suffer when they share a house with an alcoholic. Unfortunately, alcoholism is common and many children find themselves in this situation. The emotional and psychological scars that children can develop in alcoholic homes can be so deep that they can last well into adulthood. Youth who grew up in an alcoholic home can develop similar personality traits and characteristics. Approximately 26.8 million children are exposed to alcoholism in the family and 6.6 million children 18 and younger live in households with at least one alcoholic

Family problems can be at many levels. The children would lose all respect for the alcoholic parents because they cannot count on him; the

Children of Alcoholics (COAs) refer to children living in families where a parent abuse alcohol, dependence, and addiction is present. COAs have different life experience than children in non alcoholic families. Which contribute to the fact that living with an alcoholic can cause stress for members in the family Statistics show that eighteen percent

Substance abuse, the abuse of drugs or alcohol, is known to have a lasting impact on members of the abuser’s family (Crosson-Tower, 2013). Ultimately there are two ways in which a family can experience the detrimental effects of substance abuse within the family system itself, and those ways are through either substance abuse on the parent’s behalf or substance abuse by the adolescents or children in the family unit (Crosson-Tower, 2013). Substance abuse can have many negative impacts on a family unit; the negative impacts are known to be emotionally, physically, and mentally damaging (Gruber & Taylor, 2006).

While both alcoholism and child abuse are prevalent issues in today 's society, alcohol is a more prevalent issue at hand. The Glass Castle clearly illustrates the reality of the effects when adult abuse children, and the everlasting effects it has upon children’s children; domino effect if one must, or vicious cycle that is difficult to break free from. Whatever the case maybe alcoholism and child abuse go hand in hand like fuel and fire, when both combined and united, both are extremely combustible, and deadly. Thus, going into depth into the effects of alcoholism and child abuse, we will analyze how people’s lives are impacted from a social, emotional, physical, psychological, and economical standpoint by relating personal effects to successfully analyze a controversial topic.

Drug use by parents and/or older siblings, coupled with tolerant parental viewpoints concerning drug usage by young people, can put youth at a greater risk of drug and alcohol use (Yu, 2003). Close parental supervision along with strongly promoted household rules influence and help deter the use of alcohol/drugs among youth (Yu, 2003). 7 million of American adolescents younger than 18 years old have parents that are alcoholics (Yu, 2003). Children of alcohol abusers have a greater chance of having behavioral and medical problems. This includes criminal behavior, learning disabilities, ADHD, emotional/ mental conditions, and problematic drinking or alcoholism once they’re adults (Yu,

This is how? Families in the States of America are viewed as the basic source of strength, providing nurturance as well as the support for its individual members while ensuring stability and generational continuity for the community versus its culture. The sense of rapid social, economic and political change turns to affect the family and reduces their sense of the relationship between people, groups, and even places. According to research, stability of relationships, expectations, as well as the environment which is a very powerful force that helps people to manage their lives, most especially the young adults and the children. Having said that, classical issues of balancing discipline and control of children with the support, which encourages them to explore and understand the world may be complicated by abusing the use of alcohol and drugs as well as a wide range of other conditions (unodc.org). In other words, family experience with and parental attitudes towards alcohol and other drug use affect a child’s likelihood of developing alcohol and other drug problems. Also, the act of poor management, lack of family bonding, poor monitoring of a child’s behavior and that of physical abuse and or neglect are possible risk factors that allowed or give room for

Addiction is a disease that not only affects the person with the addiction but the family as well. The children that grow up in this environment take on different roles in their family to try and cope with their environment. According to American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, there is an estimate of 26.8 million children that are exposed to alcoholism in the family (2015). As these children grow up they develop many common characteristics into adulthood. These characteristics have a lasting impact on their lives.

Alcoholism is a disease caused by an excessive consumption of alcoholic substances. Alcoholism causes many psychological and behavioral problems which include disruption of social and work life, hand tremors, blackouts, obsessive desire to drink, inclination towards violence, among other problems. Alcoholism might cause violent reaction towards other people, usually the people who suffer of these violent reactions are the ones that are the closest to the alcoholic, their family. The children of these people are the ones that suffer the most because they have to live with their parents and cannot walk away as any adult could do. This leads to the question, “Should children of alcoholic parents be taken away by child protective services and be placed in foster care? If yes, what are the consequences of putting children in foster homes?” Most people would say yes, but not many people think if the children actually do better in foster care in comparison to staying with their parents or any of the problems that may arise after placing the children in foster care.

Change of behavior caused by alcohols has negative impacts on one's surrounding and will, eventually, creates a rift among loved ones. Alcoholic can do anything without thinking for the future as long as they get the money to buy alcohol, ones may use the rental money for the house to buy alcohol and the worst case could happen is he loses his jobs. With this, drinker cannot be dependent on and divorce is inevitable as he could no longer support his family. Not few child abuse cases caused by alcoholic parents. Studies have shown that "2/3 of child abuse case involves alcohol" ("Facts about alcohol"). Family members also began to avoid friends, hide problems and cover up for the drinker as they are ashamed of their family member who is alcoholic. "More than one-half of American adults have a close family member who has or has had alcoholism" ("Dawson and Grant") Moreover, there is higher chances for their teenager child to be alcoholic too as they are used to seeing their parents drunk.

Alcohol is a harmful drug consumed by many including young people ranging from the ages 15 to 29. Meanwhile alcohol does have some benefits when drank in moderation as an adult, when it comes to young people there is only negative impacts both psychically and mentally resulting in dangerous and life altering outcomes. What many seem to forget is that not only does alcohol effect the individual but also has a negative impact on their family, loved ones and community.

A study by Wolin and associates determined that children who originated from alcoholic families were not able to function in terms of behavior and emotion as successfully as those who originated from non alcoholic families. In the study, children of alcoholics scored notably lower when researchers looked at their behavioral and emotional

The family strategy basically involves the parents and other family members creating a good relationship with the adolescents under their care. The parents and guardians should be good role models to their children in terms of their alcohol related behavior (Bonnie and O’Connell 19). For example, if a parent is an alcoholic, the child is bound to get the wrong picture about the parent and eventually get into alcohol in later stages of life as they argue that, alcohol is not bad since their parents also drink. Good rapport between parents and adolescents is vital as it sets a foundation