Link drinking parents and labour market outcomes for children
blog economicenglish2
15-12-2009
neglection
Some of the grown up
children with alcoholic parents wont talk about the problems they had to cope
with in their youth, they will deny them. Others might admit there were some
serious problems but theyll argue that those problems are the past, and that
they no longer affect them.
This is rarely true, an unhappy childhood mostly creates long-lasting
effects that carry into adulthood. Those problems have changed these persons. And
as a result they are more vulnerable to stress and depressions, especially when
they start working. Because of stress and depression there is a larger chance
that they will be chased away from the labour market and become unemployed. ( maybe a reason to start drinking like their parents)
Kids who grow up with
drinking parents take a role in the family life,
Some kids are becoming a
clown, some become peacemakers, others super responsible.
Al these skills are developed to cope with
the hard life in a family with parental alcoholism. These skills sometimes seem
useful for a job when they grow up, but its not how it seems. The clown often becomes
irresponsible, the super responsible becomes a perfectionist demanding
perfection of himself and those around him. These characteristics arent supporting
their carreer options at all.
On top of that they will
have to carry all the childhood dramas and traumas with them for the rest of
their life.
Children of alcoholics
are often neglected, they arent told how to communicate in a proper way, they
are being yelled at in abusive language, and they arent intellectually stimulated
like it should be.
This results in
strong feelings of incompetence, inferiority and guilt. They dont know how to
express themselves.
Research confirms
that children of alcoholics tend to score lower on tests that measure verbal
skills. This does not mean that theyre intellectually impaired.
The lack of
verbal skills impedes their ability to make social contact, their academic performance,
and in the end the performance on a job interview.
Living in
an alcoholic family affects the development of children.
Researches which compare
(adult) children of alcoholic parents with children of nonalcoholic parents indicate
that physical and psychological abuse from alcoholic parents teaches children a
different behavior model and a distorted personality with which they can
survive in an alcoholic family. These experiences and personalities are carried
into the adult lives of children. They suffer from anxiety,
depression and low self-esteem and demonstrate poor academic performances in
school. So when they are dealing with their job, family and social relationship
later, they always overreact emotionally.
Adult children of alcoholics can practice ‘being normal’
Acknowledging
the effects of an alcoholic family member on his/her family is an important
step in the treatment of the problems of adult children of alcoholics.
Children of
alcoholics, who grow up in a dysfunctional family, learn by themselves how to
protect themselves from the abuse of parents who are deeply under the influence
by alcohol. As a result of the unhappy childhood, they become sensitive and distrust
everybody. Their family is like a festering wound which cannot be touched. If
adult children of alcoholics can break the silence and separate their past from
the present, then they will be able to move on and to be as 'normal' as the
children from nonalcoholic family.
Father’s Drinking May Affect Relationship Between Mother and Child
The mother
is a primary caregiver who infants will form attachments to.
Alcoholic fathers
seriously hinder this healthy relationship between mother en child. The mother
is dissatisfied with the marriage because of the father's alcohol abuse. The
relationship discord of the mother reduces her care and love towards her child
to a great degree. Growing up in this dysfunctional family may cause the
asocial personality of the child. Further the mentality problem can cause criminal
behavior. We can decide that in the first place it is the parents’ responsibility
to give their children a functional family and positive view of the world.
