Our purpose in the present report was to extend this line of investigation by evaluating effects of mother's maximum consumption on substance misuse and mental health in adolescent offspring. Maternal alcoholism is a significant risk factor for mental health problems in children and adolescents (Christensen & Bilenberg, 2000; Dawson, 1992; Hill & Muka, 1996; Werner, 1986), and children with two alcoholic parents have higher rates of problems than those with a single alcoholic parent (Hill & Muka, 1996; Iacono et al., 2003; Nordberg, Rydelius, & Zetterstrom, 1993), indicating that maternal drinking confers additional risk. Yet much of the work on alcoholism risk has focused on the father's role in transmitting genetic liability for alcoholism. This owes in part to difficulties ruling out effects of drinking during pregnancy when considering the mother's role. Because our assessment included questions about drinking during pregnancy, we were able to address this potential confound. Our primary research question was whether the maximum number of drinks a woman consumed in any 24-hr period in her lifetime would be associated with the same types of characteristics of
