ISSN : 1229-0718
Families with parental alcohol problem are frequently described as showing not only poverty, violence, and family conflict but also parental psychopathological problems. Children of alcoholic families may be at great risk for the development of psychiatric disorder if they are exposed to such environment with dense risk factors. It is not sufficient to explain the developmental outcome of child by finding out only multiple problems of his risk environment. Without considering interelations among variables describing the functioning of alcoholic families it is impossible to infer how and why certain characteristics of either the child or the environment are casually related to developmental outcome. Especially a process model of the functioning of young alcoholic families will display how parents are involved in developmental process of their young children. Adaptation as well as maladaptation of child at risk will be explained by multivariate process model showing dynamic functioning of risk family environment.