Familial history of alcoholism and its influence on coping in interpersonal contexts

The use of alcohol long has been viewed as a means of coping with difficulties (Wills & Shiffman, 1985). Drinking to cope has beenjdefined as "the tendency to use alcohol to escape, avoid, or otherwise regulate unpleasant emotions" (Cooper, Russell, & George, 1988, p.218). In spite of this popular conceptualization, little empirical work has been done concerning the relationships between psychosocial stressors, coping abilities, and alcohol use and abuse in alcoholics and their families (Cente, Plutchik, Picard, Galanter, & Jacoby, 1991). Additionally, few studies have examined how children growing up in alcoholic homes acquire coping skills (Wright & Heppner, 1991), in spite of the fact that differences in coping among these offspring have been documented for many years. Reuse and his colleagues (Reuse, Waller, & Ewing, 1973) found that individuals with a family history of alcoholism (family history positive, or FHP) employed fewer different coping methods to manage anxiety or depression than did individuals from control groups with no family history of alcoholism (family history negative, or FHN). However, specific types of coping used were not examined in this study. Similarly, Wilson and Orford (1978) found that children of alcoholic fathers had fewer means of coping with emotional stress and that they mere often tended to resort to solitary activities (e.g., smoking, trying to forget) while children of abstainers coped by talking with friends and relatives, eating, and attending church.