However, the potential effect of developmental timing in comparing the findings across the three reporters of children’s symptomatology deserves greater research attention. The time-varying effect of father’s alcohol-related symptoms among children of alcoholic parents was limited to parent report. This may reflect a relatively greater impact of these timing of risk indicators in childhood versus adolescence. This finding would be consistent with the view that there is greater potential for malleability in children’s functioning earlier in development before these trajectories of externalizing behavior become entrenched and reinforced through cascading, negative consequences (e.g., antisocial peers, negative labeling in schools).
