Families in distress, the development of children growing up with alcohol and violence.

Growing up in a family with alcohol problems and violence means a greater risk of abuse and neglect depending on: who is the alcoholic, how violent is the violence, social conditions, social status, relations outside the family and individual factors in the child (the resilient child). The psychological environment in which the children are raised is characterized by: having experienced one or both parents losing contact with reality because of being drunk, fear of losing one or both parents because of death, fear of not being loved and fear of being stigmatised if it is known, that one or both parents are alcoholics and/or violent. Results show that the more passive forms of neglect are the most common and that children develop strategies for survival. The presentations will be based on four Danish research projects 1988, 1990, 1992 and 1994 by the author.