An additional issue that is relevant to understanding the inheritance of alcohol dependence risk concerns genotype– environment correlation (for an insightful early discussion, see Eaves et al. 1977). This term refers to the fact that people at high genetic risk for alcoholism may often be exposed to higher-risk environments as well. For example, they may be more likely to be exposed to heavy alcohol consumption by a parent in the home. Thus, if children with one or two alcohol-dependent parents have a higher chance of being in a high-risk environment for alcohol dependence or other psychopathology, then they may both inherit genetic risk factors and be more likely to be exposed to environmental risk factors. These two groups of risk factors may contribute to the children’s risk for alcohol dependence, both individually and through their interactions with each other. Such effects may also arise through the environmental influences of other biological relatives (e.g., older siblings) or, less obviously, through selective friendship or mate selection effects (Jacob et al. 2001). For example, impulsive people might have a tendency to select other
