Temperament: a salient correlate of risk factors for alcohol and drug abuse.

A sample of sons of substance abusing (SA+; n = 39) and normal fathers (SA-; n = 45) were studied to determine the relative contribution of temperament characteristics and paternal lifetime history of substance abuse as factors that are putatively linked to risk for substance abuse. Cluster analyses of sons' and fathers' scores on the Revised Dimensions of Temperament Survey (DOTS-R) yielded 'difficult' temperament and normative temperament clusters. In a comparison of risk liability associated with SA+/SA- status versus temperament cluster membership, boys in the difficult temperament cluster were differentiated from boys in the normative temperament cluster on cognitive, behavior, family and peer affiliation risk factors. In subsequent logistic regression analyses, 85% of sons in the difficult temperament cluster and 72% of sons in the normative temperament cluster were correctly classified by their risk factor scores.