Parent alcoholism was assessed by parent-report in both studies. Three indicators indexed the distal, proximal, and time-varying effects of parent alcoholism. The distal indicator was largely based on diagnostic interviews with parents conducted at baseline to assess lifetime diagnoses of alcohol abuse or dependence. Specifically, in the MLS, parental alcohol use disorder at Wave 1 was assessed by the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (version III; Robins et al. 1981, 1982), the Short Michigan Alcohol Screening Test (Selzer, Vinokur & Van Rooijan, 1975), and the Drinking and Drug History Questionnaire (Zucker, Noll, & Fitzgerald, 1988). On the basis of information collected by all three instruments, a lifetime diagnosis at the time of the baseline assessment was made by a trained clinician using DSM-IV criteria. Inter-rater reliability for the diagnosis was excellent (kappa=0.81). In AFDP, parents were directly interviewed at baseline using a computerized version of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule to assess diagnostic status. In cases where a biological parent was not directly interviewed (21% of fathers and 4% of mothers in the current subsample), the reporting parent was used as the informant
