(PS10-C60) Family Satisfaction as a Mediator of the Impact of Parental Heavy Alcohol Use on Female Adolescent Depressive Symptoms

Introduction: Children of parents who engage in problematic or harmful drinking often experience depressive symptoms and low levels of family satisfaction (Jokinen et al., 2021; Ossola et al., 2021; Wasserman et al., 2021). Depressive symptoms have often been identified as a consequence of heavy parental alcohol use, but they may be better explained by family dysfunction and conflict that arises from parental alcohol use (rather than the alcohol use itself; Harter, 2000). Importantly, high levels of family satisfaction can be protective against the consequences of problematic parental alcohol use, and this is particularly true for female children (Ossola et al., 2021). Therefore, we aimed to test whether the relationship between problematic parental alcohol consumption and depressive symptoms was better explained by family satisfaction levels among a sample of female adolescents and young adults. 

Methods: The cross-sectional data used in the analyses were collected at the baseline of a larger biometric study and included 135 females ages 14 to 24, (M_Age = 19.24, SD = 2.62). Over half of the sample identified as White (56.3%, n = 76), 5.2% identified as Black (n = 7), 14.8% were American Indian or Alaska Native (n = 20), and 23.7% were Latina (n = 32).The Children of Alcoholics Scale 6-item (CAST-6) was utilized to identify children of parents who engage in problematic drinking and likely are diagnosable with alcohol use disorder. Participants read through the 6 items such as, “Did you ever feel like hiding or emptying a parent's bottle of liquor?” and “Have you ever thought that one of your parents had a drinking problem?” and mark either yes(1) or no(0). The items that are marked yes are then added together. The 10-item Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale-IV (FACES-IV) was used to measure respondents’ rating (1 = not satisfied at all to 5 = very satisfied) of their overall family satisfaction based on cohesion, flexibility, and communication. The 20-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale-Revised (CESD-R) was used in this study to measure depressive symptoms over the past two weeks, (0 = Not at all or less than one day to 4 = Nearly every day for 2 weeks). To investigate family satisfaction as a mediator of CAST scores and (log-transformed) depressive symptoms, a simple mediation analysis was performed on SPSS using PROCESS.

Results: Problematic parent alcohol use negatively predicted family satisfaction, β = -.25, p</em> < .001. In the mediation model, 21% of the variance in depressive symptoms was explained by the model, F(2, 132) = 17.98, p < .001. Family satisfaction predicted depressive symptoms, β = -.41, p < .001, whereas parent alcohol use did not, β =.14 p = .08. There was a significant indirect effect of parental alcohol use on adolescent females’ depressive symptoms through family satisfaction, β = .10, 95% CI [.03, .19].

Conclusion: Our model demonstrates the importance of accounting for familial factors when examining the consequences of problematic parental alcohol use. CAST scores predicted lower family satisfaction, which in turn predicted female adolescents and young adults experiencing higher levels of depressive symptoms. However, longitudinal data are needed to fully contextualize our findings.