This report is based on data from the 1988 National Health Interview Survey on Alcohol (NHIS-Alcohol), part of the ongoing National Health Interview Survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics. Interviews for the NHIS are conducted in person by staff of the United States Bureau of the Census. Information is collected on each member of the family. The survey contains many questions concerning alcohol consumption; the personal, medical, and social problems associated with alcohol use, and exposure to alcoholism and problem drinking in the family. This report describes the prevalence of both environmental exposure to alcoholism through having lived with an alcoholic when growing up or in marriage, and genetic exposure in terms of having had an alcoholic blood relative. The results indicated that about 43 percent of adults have been exposed to alcoholism or problem drinking in the family. In some cases, this exposure is very direct, as when persons grow up in a family with an alcoholic, and frequently lasts a lifetime. Sometimes the exposure is to an alcoholic spouse and lasts for varying lengths of cohabitation. Finally, the exposure may be strictly by blood, with little or no social contact. In all three cases the presence of alcoholism in a family member poses some risk, both for adverse social, psychological, and economic outcomes and for biological predisposition to the disease itself. Four statistical tables and technical notes are provided. (43 references) (LLL)