A paper published in the International Journal of Behavioural and Healthcare Research looks at the link between parental alcohol consumption and the mental wellbeing of children in the household. Nazli Ezgi Sidal and Tekin Kose of the Department of Economics, at TED University, in Ankara, Turkey, have taken their home country as a case study on this issue. They use data from the Turkey Health Survey of 2016, which is conducted by the Turkish Statistical Institute.
In their analysis, the team looked for correlations between mental deficiency, learning disability, attention deficit, late talking, and behavioural issues in children within a household where the parents consume alcohol. They found that there is a negative association with the children’s mental wellbeing status and alcohol consumption. Additionally, the self-assessed health status of mothers was positively correlated with children’s mental health. The greater the alcohol use in mothers, the more likely were offspring to have problems.
It is well-known that parental behaviour can have a significant impact on children’s life outcomes such as health status and educational performance. That said, many other factors are involved. Smoking and alcohol use, for example, can have an impact on the parents’ health as well as direct and indirect effects on offspring.
“Policymakers should consider giving priorities in enhancing life and health conditions of parents in Turkey to improve life outcomes of children,” the team suggests. They add that “Improvements in health literacy of parents and specifically health statuses of mothers may significantly contribute children’s life outcomes.”
Sidal, N.E. and Kose, T. (2019) ‘Parental alcohol use and children’s mental health: the case of Turkey’, Int. J. Behavioural and Healthcare Research, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp.65–76.