The alcohol use of mothers and fathers was related, with a polychoric correlation of 0.58. When the two parents' drinking were entered into the model at the same time and adjusted for demographics, the associations with attention and conduct problems were somewhat reduced (lower part of Table 1). Parental alcohol use was still associated with their children's adjustment on attention and conduct problems, and children of abstainers still did better than children of light drinkers on attention and conduct if the mother was abstaining, and on academic if the father was abstaining. Children of mothers who did not participate did just as well as children of light drinkers, whereas children of non-responding fathers had modestly elevated scores on attention, academic, and conduct problems.
