Adult children of alcoholics: Measuring the personality characteristics of autonomy, inferiority and intimacy

This study investigated how adult children of alcoholics differ from adult children of non-alcoholics when measured on the personality characteristics of autonomy, inferiority and intimacy. The subjects were randomly selected from the employees of a large school district in southeast Virginia. Each subject received a questionnaire package that included the Adjective Check List, Personal Orientation Inventory, Children of Alcoholics Screening Test and The Personal History Questionnaire. The return rate for questionnaire packages was 72%. All subjects were volunteers and their identities remained anonymous to the researcher. The sample size was 130.;The subjects were placed in the adult children of alcoholics group (n = 86) if they were parented by an alcoholic and scored six or above on the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST). Subjects were placed in the adult children of non-alcoholics group (n = 44) if they were not parented by an alcoholic and scored below six on the CAST. The subjects were compared on the autonomy and abasement scales of the Adjective Check List, and the capacity of intimate contact (C) scale of The Personal Orientation Inventory. There was no statistically significant difference found between the two groups when a t-test was employed with the alpha level set at the.05. A Bonferroni method was used to control for alpha since several questions were studied. For this population which was primarily white, well-educated, employed, females, there was no statistically significant difference between adult children of alcoholics and adult children of non-alcoholics for the variables of autonomy, inferiority and intimacy. However, self-reported adult children of alcoholics scored statistically significantly higher on the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST) than did self-reported adult children of non- alcoholics using a t-test with the alpha level set at.05. All self reported adult children of alcoholics scored six or above on the CAST.;This research was based on the work of Erik Erikson and his developmental stage approach. These findings would indicate that some children of alcoholics may not be in need of treatment or a recovery program