Noting that children growing up with an alcoholic parent often suffer from underdeveloped perceptual skills, unhealthy self-concepts, and low self-esteem, a study examined the impact of an alcoholic family environment on the ability of adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs) to communicate interpersonally. The Communicator Style Measure (CSM) was used to test the hypothesis that individuals self-identified as adult children of alcoholics demonstrate a unique communicator style, characterized by scores in the dominant, impression leaving, open, and communicator image domains. Subjects were 518 public speaking students at a western urban university, 74 of whom (14.3%) identified themselves as ACOAs. All subjects completed a packet containing the CSM and a family health history questionnaire. Communicator styles of ACOAs--as measured by the CSM--were compared to the CSM results for a random sample of individuals not identified as children of alcoholics. Results supported the hypothesis by indicating a unique communicator style associated with adult children of alcoholics and characterized by self-perceptions of passive and unimpressive communicative behavior. Results reflect the tendency of ACOAs to perceive themselves as less effective communicators than individuals in the comparison group. (AEW)