Previously, we also posited that the distal effects of parents’ alcohol-related symptoms were stronger and more consistent than proximal and time-varying effects because these latter effects may be relatively weaker for internalizing symptoms as compared with other forms of psychopathology, such as externalizing symptoms, for which COAs show a greater risk (e.g., Chassin et al., 1991). Indeed, effects for proximal and time-varying effects were more evident in analyses predicting children’s externalizing than internalizing symptoms. Thus, this argument may be at least partially supported. Further analyses should expand upon this specificity of risk question, particularly given that previous studies show the strongest specific effects of parent alcoholism on child functioning indices are, not surprisingly, for alcohol involvement itself (Chassin et al., 1991). As such, the effect of parent alcoholism on some outcomes may be limited to distal influences, as appears to be the case for internalizing symptoms, but others may be a combination of distal, proximal, and time-varying effects, as appears to be the case for externalizing symptoms.
