Parental SUD is associated with increased risk for offspring SUD, externalizing, and internalizing disorders (Dinwiddie and Reich, 1991, Sher, 1991, Chassin et al., 1999; Morgan et al., 2010). It may also confer increased vulnerability for an array of comorbidities which cross externalizing and internalizing domains, and which are characterized by different risk factors and environmental contexts. While offspring studies are designed to examine familial vulnerability to psychopathology, they have not, to our knowledge, investigated other risk factors putatively associated with parental SUDs, such as parenting behaviors and perceived sibling substance use and peer influences, which could be associated with subtypes of offspring comorbidity.
