Although parental alcohol abuse and dependence problems were partially assessed from the screening interview, self-report versions with more detailed questions were used to enhance the alcohol data and check for consistent reporting. The UM-CIDI interview (Anthony et al., 1994; Kessler, McGonagle, Zhao, Nelson, & Hughes, 1994) was used to assess alcohol abuse and dependence. Several questions were reworded to inquire as to “how many times” a problem had been experienced, as opposed to whether it happened “very often.” DSM-IV criteria for alcohol abuse and dependence diagnoses for current alcohol problems (in the past year) were used to assign final diagnostic group status. For abuse criteria, recurrent alcohol problems were described as those occurring at least 3–5 times in the past year or 1–2 times in three or more problem areas. The UM-CIDI was also used to derive continuous measures of the number of alcohol-related abuse and dependence symptoms in the past year. We used a quantity-frequency index (QFI) of alcohol use adapted from Cahalan, Cisin, and Crossley (1969) to obtain a measure of average daily ethanol intake for both parents.
