Screening of familial alcohol abuse through children

Abstract

The Children of Alcoholics Screening Test, CAST (Jones, 1981), has showed their utility as an instrument to detect problems related to alcohol abuse in family through the children. Moreover, it has been used to assess the feelings, behaviors and experiences related to the use that the parents make of the alcohol intake. This study has been designed to evaluate the utility of the CAST as a alcohol consumption screening instrument in a representative sample of children from Seville (n=3345; age range: 9 to 20 years). The children were selected from 32 primary, secondary, and polytechnic schools located in one of the 16 districts of the city. We also applied the CAGE questionnaire to their parents. The results show a positive relationship between both instruments, and their utility to discard the presence of problems related to the alcohol abuse in the family. Nevertheless, the predictive validity of the CAST is low in order to confirm the existence of abuse alcohol problems.