Both proximal and time-varying indicators of parent alcoholism were based on parents’ self-reports at each wave of whether they had experienced any of 11 alcohol-related symptoms in the past year. The symptoms are based on indicators of DSM-IV criteria for alcohol abuse and dependence and include getting complaints from friends/family, losing friends, getting arrested for drunk drinking, getting arrested for other drinking-related offenses, missing school or work, losing a job or getting kicked out of school, drinking first thing in the morning, drinking more or longer than intended, feeling guilty about drinking, and suffering blackouts. All items were dichotomized (absent versus present) and summed within wave to form the repeated measures indicating the time-varying effects of parent alcoholism. These time-varying indicators were then averaged across wave (within-person) to create the proximal indicator of parent alcoholism.1 By creating time-varying (or within-person) and proximal (or between-person) indicators in this manner, we were able to disaggregate within- and between- person effects within a multilevel modeling framework (as described in the results; also see Curran, Edwards, Wirth, Hussong & Chassin, 2007).
