This renewal application proposes a second study on family factors involved in the intergenerational transmission of alcoholism. In the initial study, families with alcohol abuse in two tenerations--transmitters--have been compared with families having only parental generation afftected--non-transmitters. The characteristics of ritual behavior in daily family life has been compared in both groups. The transmitter group has been found to develop a preponderance of rituals involving alcohol abuse, subsuming the normal ritual functions in family living. These families have been labelled "subsumptive", distinguishing them from "distinctive" families where normal ritual behaviors do not include alcohol abuse. In transmitter families selective sibling involvement appears related to a second family factor--the continuation or rejection of the family's heritage. This is particularly true at the time of offspring marriage when the selection of a family identity for the new couple will normally allow one origin family or the other to predominate as the family of heritage. In the proposed study we have revised our structured interviews and criteria for subject population to perform a within-family sibling comparison. The objective will be to assess the likelihood that each married child will repeat in the successive generation his parent's alcoholism. Siblings will be compared as to the subsumptiveness of their origin families and their family identity selection. Subjects will include thirty transmitter families with approximately ninety married couples and their parents, when available. Individual and conjoint couple interviews will be standardized and a manual will be prepared for rating origin family type and family identity selection. Drinking patterns of all family members will be separately assessed and scaled. A rating of the likelihood for alcoholism transmission for each sibling will then be compared with actual drinking behavior to evaluate the relationship between alcohol abuse rituals, family identity and the re urrence of alcoholism.