Children of alcohol misusers and school performance outcomes

Studies show that children of alcoholics constitute an at-risk population. The present study attempted to understand the impact of parental alcohol misuse on the school performance of children, based on a sample of 838 teenagers from alcohol misusing parents in Minnesota. These teenagers had significantly poorer performance in all the six measurements of school performance used. The study also identified a few protective factors: those who did well in school perceived that their parents had high expectations of them, rated themselves as generally healthy and assessed themselves to be religious.