Are children of alcoholics more likely to be alcoholics themselves? In answering the question, researchers sampled 451 people in Alcoholics Anonymous to see how many would say that one, or both, of their parents were alcoholics. People in AA used in the study currently attend AA somewhere in Ohio, Michigan, or Indiana and were asked by people in charge of the local AA programs to volunteer to fill out a survey. The research found that 77 percent of the respondents had at least one parent they classified as an alcoholic. The study also surveyed 451 people randomly from the same states who claim not to be heavy drinkers. Of the non-heavy drinkers, 23 percent would label at least one of their parents as alcoholic.
1. In your own words, please write the conclusion of this passage. – 3 points
From this passage, it is concluded, that commonly, one or both parents of alcoholics are accounted as alcoholics too. Therefore, it means that usually, children of majority heavy drinkers are also become alcoholics.
2. Please identify the reasons used in this passage. – 3 points
So, author gave several reasons in the form of facts such as questionnaire, for the conclusion above. They made two general surveys, where 451 alcoholics and 451 not alcoholic people were asked. For the first survey, results were justified expectations by 77% out of 100%. By this I mean, that approximately 347 of respondents from AA said that at least of their parents were alcoholics. However, for the next survey, only 23% of whole respondents, who were out from AA approved that one or both their parents were drinkers.
3. What are some weaknesses in the argument, in your opinion? – 5 points
There are some weaknesses in this argument. First, all participants of this study were from only three states, there are Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana. It is not sufficient to claim, that it happens all around the world. Secondly, they wrote about non-heavy drinkers