It should be noted that the relationship among parental divorce and maternal-paternal alcohol problems and adult offspring lifetime alcohol dependence may be influenced by a number of mediating influences, such as inadequate parenting and other maladaptive parental behaviors. Parental divorce is related to poor parenting skills and inadequate child supervision (Kelly, 2000; Storksen, Roysamb, Holmen & Tambs, 2006). Parental divorce/separation can also result in lack of affection, high levels of criticism or hostility, lax or inconsistent discipline or supervision, or general lack of involvement (Summers et al., 1998; Wolfinger, 1998). Also, prior research has demonstrated that the transition following parental divorce is highly stressful for most children. Children of divorced parents are more likely to exhibit psychological, behavioral, social, and academic problems than children raised in intact two-parent families (Amato, 1993; Kelly, 2000). Many of the problems (e.g., lower educational attainment and earnings, welfare dependency, poor marital quality) persist well into adulthood (Amato & Keith, 1991; Amato, Loomis & Booth, 1995; Dube et al., 2001; Dube et al., 2002) and are associated with risk for alcohol dependence.
