The week of February 9 – February 15, 2003, is designated as Children of Alcoholics Week. Each year the National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACoA) launches a public awareness campaign to bring attention to the issue of alcoholism and its affects on children.

According to NACoA, seventy six million Americans (43% of the U.S. adult population) have been exposed to alcoholism in the family.

Alcoholism Affects the Entire Family

• Living with an active alcoholic can increase stress for all members of the family. Not all family members living with an alcoholic experience or react to stress in the same way. One major factor, which can mitigate or exacerbate the impact of alcoholism on Children of Alcoholics (COAs), is the level of dysfunction or resiliency of the non-alcoholic spouse.
• Children raised in alcoholic families have different stressors and life experiences than children raised in non-alcoholic families. These life experiences have an impact on the coping skills, self-esteem, and present and future relationships of COAs.
• Children living with an active alcoholic often score lower on measures of family cohesion, intellectual-cultural orientation, active-recreational orientation, and independence. They also usually score higher on instruments that measure levels of family conflict.
• Children of alcoholics may be hampered by their inability to grow in developmentally healthy ways. Some children may take on overly adult-like behaviors and assume the role of caretaker, while others may behave or “act out” in self-destructive ways.

Source: HHS/Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in conjunction with the National Association for Children of Alcoholics.