Experiences of Adult Children of Alcoholics in Love Relationship: Are they Re-living the Past?

Capacity for love is a central component of all human societies. There is an assumption in much of the research that an individual's adult attachment style develops from the relationship that individual has with his or her own parent, the association between early relationships with alcoholic parent/s and subsequent behaviour in love relationships has rarely been studied. The experiences in love-relationship of adult children of alcoholic parents and non-alcoholic parents were studied by comparison. The purposive sample consisted of 200 college student participants who were involved in intimate relationship. They were administered Children of Alcoholics Screening Test and Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised questionnaire. Based on the cut off scores the sample was grouped into two i.e. a) adult children of alcoholic parent/s and b) adult children having non-alcoholic parent/s. When compared, the adults of alcoholic parents had experienced significantly higher levels of anxiety and avoidance in their intimate love relationships.