Executive Summary
Research has associated heavy maternal drinking with many problems in the mother's health and the development of the fetus during pregnancy. However, little attention is paid to how drinking affects child development. The good news is that only four percent of children in the NLSCY have a mother who drinks 5 drinks of more on more than 12 occasions. Unfortunately for these children, drinking poses a serious problem. Results from the NLSCY suggest that heavy maternal drinking is negatively associated with health consequences for the mother, parenting toward her children, and behavioural and emotional problems in her children.
Families with heavy-drinking mothers are more likely to be headed by a single parent, have low socioeconomic status and have poor family functioning. Heavy-drinking mothers, themselves, are more likely to suffer from depression, have poor parenting skills, smoke, and have smoking and drinking related health problems. Young children of heavy-drinking mothers are more likely to suffer from separation anxiety while older children exhibit negative behaviour such as hyperactivity direct and indirect aggression, conduct disorder, and committed more property offenses. Moreover, these children are more likely to experiment with alcohol by the age of 11 than children with mothers who drink moderately, lightly or not at all.
Teachers identified heavy-drinking mothers as less likely to be involved in their child's school and less supportive of their child's teacher. Teachers confirmed the mother's rating of difficult behaviour in the child.
The results from the NLSCY suggest that the effect of heavy maternal drinking on the developing child is a cost which needs to be included in the litany of negative outcomes associated with this behaviour.
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