Parental alcoholism: relationships to adult attachment in college women and men.

The present study of general and romantic adult attachment among 484 female and male college students compared those who resided with an alcohol-abusing parent prior to age 16 and those who did not. Participants completed the Relationship Style Questionnaire (RSQ; general adult attachment), Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R; romantic attachment), and the Children of Alcoholic Screening Test (CAST; perceived parental alcoholism). Results indicated that 23% of these young adults had lived with an alcohol-abusing parent, and relative to those who had not, they reported more anxiety and greater avoidance in romantic relationships and a more fearful style of general adult attachment. The implications of these findings in the context of the extant literature were discussed.