Figure 1 presents visual representations of the association between emotional abuse and alcohol dependence severity. Path estimates indicate that greater severity of childhood emotional abuse is associated with increased levels of neuroticism, primarily impulsiveness, which in turn is associated with increased alcohol dependence severity. The model for physical abuse (Figure 2) indicates that severity of physical abuse is negatively correlated with withdrawal anxiety symptoms, while directly positively correlated with ADS score. The contributions of the covariates, the effects of which were reasonably consistent across models, are also depicted. In terms of significant effects on ADS score, race (0 = white/caucasian, 1 = black/other) was negatively associated with ADS score, indicating that ADS score was higher among caucasian subjects. Family history of alcoholism, as measured by family history density, was highly positively correlated with ADS score. Gender and age, however, did not contribute significantly to ADS score.
