Alcoholic women in treatment: early histories and early problem behaviors.

When data from interviews with 301 alcoholic women, drawn from 21 treatment facilities, are compared with interview responses of 137 age-matched nonalcoholic control women, differences in report of early life experience appear. The two groups of women do not differ significantly in report of painful early life events, but they do differ significantly in reports of response to these events and their affective reactions during their early years. Clinic and Control women also differ significantly in report of impulsive childhood and adolescent behaviors. Comparison of Clinic women of different ages with nonalcoholic age peers suggest that childhood and adolescent impulse control problems are more likely to be associated with earlier onset of alcoholism. Present data are based on retrospection and self-report. Assuming that alcoholic women introduce no more memory distortions than nonalcoholic women in evoking early life memories, the consistent finding is that early life emotional/behavioral problems are reported to a significantly greater extent by women who will later become alcoholic than by those who will not.