Many children grow up in homes where one or both parents are alcoholics or abuse alcohol.
Sometimes children of alcoholics are also physically, sexually, and emotionally abused. But even if no overt abuse takes place, the child growing up in an alcoholic family suffers damage. Roughly 1 in 8 American adults is alcoholic or experiences problems due to the use of alcohol. COAs are 2 to 4 times more likely than non-COAs to develop alcoholism. Physiological and environmental factors appear to place COAs at greater risk of becoming alcoholic.