Working With ACOAs and ACODFs

Acoa stands for Adult Children of Alcoholics and ACODF stands for Adult Children of Dysfunctional Families. Both groups show similar characteristics and therefore benefit from similar interventions such as The Hanly Centre's Break the Cycle programme.

Below is the abridged version of CAST (Children of Alcoholics Screening Test).The questions are a subsample of questions appearing on the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test, developed by Jones and Pilat, and have been rigorously tested.

CAST 6
1. Have you ever thought that one of your parents had a drinking problem?
2. Did you ever encourage one of your parents to quit drinking?
3. Did you ever argue or fight with a parent when he or she was drinking?
4. Have you ever heard your parents fight when one of them was drunk?
5. Did you ever feel like hiding or emptying a parent's bottle of alcohol?
6. Did you ever wish that a parent would stop drinking?

Scoring:
3 or more yes answers - probably a COA