The Association between Parental Alcoholism and Depression in Offspring

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William Miller

Will is a current sophomore at Wesleyan majoring in economics and minoring in data analysis. At Wesleyan, Will is a member of the Men’s Lacrosse Team and the Wesleyan Investment Group. Outside of class, he enjoys hanging out with friends, sunsets, and reading about large mergers and acquisitions in the technology space. 

Abstract:

This study examines the relationship between the presence of alcoholic parents and depression in their children. Chi-squared tests of significance and logistic regressions were used to examine an association between alcoholic mothers, fathers, and major lifetime depression in offspring. These tests found a significant relationship present, predicting that children with at least one alcoholic parent have an expected odds of major depression that is ~2.34 times higher than those with no alcoholic parent. Those with two alcoholic parents were most likely to experience depression, and participants with an alcoholic mother were slightly more likely to experience depression than those with an alcoholic father. Multiple logistic regressions found that the gender of the offspring was not a significant moderator in the relationship between parental alcoholism and depression. Further steps could be taken to examine the presence of other mental health issues, like anxiety and ADHD, in children of alcoholics.

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