Children of Alcoholics

Characteristics of Children of Alcoholics

Introduction

The use of alcohol has been around for centuries. The effects it has on the physical as well as the psychological make-up of the human body and mind are adverse. The first sip of alcohol that you take in starts effecting the functioning of the body and mind of the user. After having a couple of drinks, the person may start feeling sociable. Drinking too much is however going to effect the basic functions of human like talking and walking properly. Alcohol irritates stomach. It can cause sickness, diarrhea as well as nausea. It can also cause a number of diseases like liver diseases, cancer of mouth and liver. Alcohol is the second number of drug, after tobacco which increases the risk of oral and the digestive tract cancer. It can also cause diabetes and pancreatitis. A lot of heart diseases are also caused by drinking excessive alcohol.

The physical effects of drinking alcohol may not be as hard as the psychological and mental effects it has on the users as well as the people around him. The use of alcohol changes the chemistry of brain. It increases the likelihood of suffering from depression. According to recent surveys, the people who were suffering from depression and anxiety drink around twice as much as the normal drinkers. The people close to the drinker of alcohol are the most likely to get affected by the drinking habits of the person. The most affected are the children of the parents that are alcohol users. The children being the most closest to the parents start affecting from this habit of their parents early from the childhood. It is also found that drinking excessive alcohol by the parents can pass on hereditary problems from the parents to the off springs. The children become psychologically affected the most. They suffer from the deficit of paying attention to their studies. They may also behavioral problems and may also suffer from the lack of confidence. The children of such parents also lag behind in their academic performances as compared to the children of the parents who are not into drinking. It also becomes difficult for the parents to alter the behavior of their children. But all said, this trend cannot be generalized.

This paper contains a series of literature reviews on the already published research papers on the topic of the characteristics of the children of alcoholic parents. Literature review of the articles is given below followed by the attenuated bibliography.

Literature Review

Studies performed by Kenneth J. Sher, Kimberly S., Walitzer, Phillip K. Wood and Edward E. Brent yielded many fruitful results on the characteristics of the children of alcoholics and non-alcoholics. The tests conducted on children of alcoholics (COAs) showed a general trend of facing more problems as compared to those of non-COAs. The trend showcased that the children of alcoholics faced more alcohol and drug problems as compared to children of non-alcoholics (Sher, et. al. ...