Although research has shown the problems associated with being the offspring of an alcoholic, not all such offspring are maladjusted. To investigate the relationships among variables associated with the adjustment of children of alcoholic fathers, 30 offspring of alcoholic fathers and 40 controls, aged 18 to 23 years, completed demographic, environmental, social support, and coping measures. An analysis of the results showed that children of alcoholics reported more distressing situations than did children of non-alcoholics. Children of alcoholics also used emotion-focused coping strategies more often than problem-focused coping. In examining the interaction of variables, it was found that 40% of the variance in the depression pronenesss of offspring of alcoholics could be accounted for by the degree to which the family encouraged independence, the amount of informational support available, and the degree to which self-blame was used. In addition, 40% of the variance in self-esteem could be accounted for by family cohesion and the degree to which emotion-focused coping was used. These findings support an interactional approach to the examination of offspring adjustment. (BL)