Compared to children raised in intact families, children whose parents separate or divorce report earlier use of alcohol (Donovan & Molina, 2011; Flewelling & Bauman, 1990; Short, 1998) and higher rates of problem drinking (Dube et al., 2002; Hoffmann & Johnson, 1998; Hope et al., 1998; Wolfinger, 1998). Likewise, children of alcoholics report earlier and more frequent alcohol use than children of nonalcoholic parents (Chassin et al., 1991; Wong et al., 2006), and are at especially high risk of problem drinking (Lieb et al., 2002; Russell, 1990; Schuckit & Smith, 1996). Elevated rates of early and problem drinking are also observed in children of other drug using and dependent parents (Clark et al., 1998, 1999).
