the possible contribution of parental comorbid conditions in the development of these disorders, and the temporal progression of psychopathology in childhood and adolescence have largely been unexplored. With two large-scale family studies ongoing in our laboratory in which third generation offspring have been evaluated longitudinally through childhood and adolescence, we were in a position to begin to answer some of these questions. Moreover, because one of the studies ascertained families through the presence of a pair of adult alcohol dependent sisters, while the other selected families through the presence of a pair of adult alcohol dependent brothers, we were in a position to compare the influence of parental alcohol dependence by gender.
