Older children tended to have more conduct disorder problems than younger children, which had been suspected in the past but never demonstrated. We could not find a specific connection because the elements are so intertwined. You can't separate what is familial and what is genetic. The researchers also found that dysfunctional family interactions between the parents and the children were also associated with increased risks for the development of conduct disorder, alcohol abuse and marijuana abuse in the children. But this begs the question of which comes first.
Bad kids can bring out the worst in parents, and bad parents can bring out the worst in kids.
It works both ways. Kuperman said the findings are already helping the researchers investigate whether certain behaviors such as ADHD precede alcoholism. In this particular study, children of alcohol-dependent parents did not appear to be at increased risk for developing alcoholism. However, Kuperman said the lack of correlation most likely reflects the child participants' average age of 12. Instead of recruiting families only through alcohol treatment programs or child psychiatry clinics, the researchers included extended families of up to four generations.