Sampling issues in research on adult children of alcoholics: adolescence and beyond

A critical examination of 98 studies on adult children of alcoholics, published from 1986 to 1995, was prompted by suggestions that sampling issues confound research findings. Over half of the studies that were reviewed involved college students. It is important to understand the methodology used in creating a knowledge base that relies heavily on late adolescent and young adult offspring of alcoholics. Thus, two main questions were asked when reviewing these studies: What methods were employed to classify offspring as being children of alcoholics? To what extent does our knowledge about adult children of alcoholics depend on college student samples and clinical samples?