Report: 7.5M U.S. kids live with alcoholic parent

About 7.5 million American children under the age of 18 live with a parent who has struggled with alcohol abuse in the past year, a new government report finds.

That's equal to 10.5 percent of children across the country, say researchers at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which issued the report.

"Studies have shown that the children of parents with untreated alcohol disorders are at far greater risk for developing alcohol and other problems later in their lives," Administrator Pamela Hyde said.

According to the report, 6.1 million of those children living with an alcohol-abusing parent live in two-parent households; the other 1.4 million live in single-parent homes where that parent has struggled with alcohol.

The report is based on data from the agency's 2005-2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an annual survey involving 65,000 people nationwide aged 12 and older.

-- HealthDay