The role of stress and family relationships in mediating problem drinking and fathers' personal adjustment

Objective: To test a stress process model in which family stress (negative life events) and fathers' family system resources (marital adjustment and positive father-child relationships) were evaluated as mediators of the relationship between problem drinking (fathers' and mothers') and fathers' personal adjustment. Method: Structural equation modeling was used to analyze data from fathers and mothers in 93 two parent families with early adolescent children. Results: Fathers' problem drinking contributed marginally to family stress and directly to fathers' diminished personal adjustment. Family stress was related to reduced marital adjustment and personal adjustment. Mothers' problem drinking contributed only to less positive father child relationships. Conclusions: Stress process models for fathers and mothers differ; in particular, family relationships do not appear to play a significant mediational role for fathers whereas they do for mothers. Interventions for symptomatic fathers might best concentrate on alleviating problem drinking and extrafamilial sources of stress.