Family Rituals and the Recurrence of Alcoholism Over Generations

There have been relatively few attempts to identify environmental factors in the transmission of alcoholism across generations. Using the framework of family systems theory, the authors examined the extent of change in family rituals in 25 families in which at least 1 parent was or had been an alcoholic. They found that families whose rituals were altered during the period of heaviest parental drinking were more likely to evidence transmission of an alcohol problem to the children's generation than families whose rituals remained intact.