It is possible that trauma type and gender may also play a role in the relationship between trauma, FH of AUD, PTSD, and executive function. One study by Meyers et al. (2019) showed neurocognitive differences depending on trauma type, such that sexual assaultive trauma, and not nonsexual assaultive or nonassaultive trauma, was associated with decreased rate of change in frontal theta oscillations during response inhibition, particularly among female participants (Meyers et al., 2019). This study suggests that trauma type, specifically sexual assaultive trauma, may affect executive functioning differently among female individuals compared to other trauma types. Further, another study examined the impact of fathers’ alcohol problems and showed that early adolescent boys, but not girls, had poorer performance on a TOLT than boys from control families (Adkison et al., 2013), suggesting sex differences in the association of paternal alcohol use disorder (AUD) with executive function deficits during early adolescence. However, no prior study has examined neurocognitive risk factors for PTSD among male and female adolescents with a FH of alcohol dependence leaving important questions regarding any potential neurocognitive or behavioral deficits associated with trauma experienced among the offspring of alcoholics unanswered.
