Gender differences in the transmission of risk for antisocial behavior problems across generations

<div><p>Previous studies have shown that children of alcohol use disorder (AUD) parents are more likely to develop alcohol problems as well as antisocial and other behavior problems. The purpose of this study was to examine gender discordance in the effect of early maternal and paternal influences on antisocial behaviors of boys and girls, as well as the environmental factors that moderate the parental effects. Specifically, we examined the effects of childhood and adulthood antisocial behavior of the parents on offspring antisocial behavior as young adults. We also examined whether mothers’ and fathers’ drinking problems when offspring were young children (6–8 years) affected offspring antisocial behavior as young adults (18–21 years). We evaluated 655 children from 339 families in the Michigan Longitudinal Study (MLS), a prospective study of AUD and non-AUD families. Path models were constructed in order to test for the parental contributions to offspring outcomes. We found that both mothers’ and fathers’ antisocial behavior contributed to the children’s young adult antisocial behavior. Only mothers’ drinking problems while their children were little had a significant effect on their sons’ later drinking, but not on their daughters’. These different parental effects suggest that maternal and paternal influences may be mediated by different mechanisms.</p></div

Descriptive statistics of children’s antisocial behavior at Time 6.

<p>Descriptive statistics of children’s antisocial behavior at Time 6.</p

Paired comparison of parents variables: Mean, standard deviations (SDs), differences, and correlation.

<p>Paired comparison of parents variables: Mean, standard deviations (SDs), differences, and correlation.</p

Model displaying mediation-moderation effect of parents’ antisocial behaviors and drinking problems on children’s antisocial behaviors for each risk group: (a) control group, (b)court AUD and community AUD group.

<p>The paths where standardized parameter estimates are significant at the 0.1 level are in solid lines.</p

Model displaying mediation-moderation effect of parents’ antisocial behaviors and drinking problems on children’s antisocial behaviors, the effect differs by father and mother on boys and girls.

<p>The paths where standardized parameter estimates are significant at the 0.05 level are in solid lines.</p