A lot of the detail in this section is based on research
undertaken with children living with parental alcohol misuse.
However, because there is a lot of overlap and hence to avoid
duplication, this section is written more generally. Much of the
detail is equally applicable to children living with parental
domestic abuse, or with both issues. The short answer is that
not all children will be negatively affected by the difficult
family environments in which they live. Whilst there is a wealth
of evidence about the problems faced by children of problem
drinking parents as children, and when older, there is growing
evidence to the contrary. Namely, that some children seem to
come through their experience relatively unscathed and with few
to no short- or long-term problems. This is commonly known as
resilience and has had an impact on how treatment and
interventions are developed for children and adolescents - “….in
general the adulthood risks run by the offspring of parents with
drinking problems have been over-