Research findings have suggested that having an adverse event in childhood increases one’s risk for developing alcohol dependence and that this effect strengthens with a greater number of adverse events. The 2001–2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, investigators have now examined the contribution of childhood or adolescence adversity to this risk, independent of the many confounding factors that previously undermined confidence in this association.

Examining four specific adverse events (parental divorce, death of a biological parent, living with foster parents, and living in an institution) demonstrated that even after adjustment for important variables  (such as gender, age, race/ethnicity, education level, age at drinking onset, binge drinking, and alcoholism in parents and grandparents of respondents), two or more childhood adverse events, compared with none, significantly increased the risk for lifetime alcohol dependence.

From Journal Watch Psychiatry January 12, 2009 and Pilowsky DJ et al. Adverse childhood events and lifetime alcohol dependence. Am J Public Health, 04 Dec 2008.