Discuss The Effects of Alcohol on Children and Teenagers.The National Association for Children of Alcoholics reports there are more than 11 million children under the age of 18 growing up with an alcoholic parent in the United States (“Children of Alcoholism: Important facts). The effects of being born to an alcoholic mother have a devastating effect on both the child and the family as a whole. Child abuse is one of the most devastating side effects of the ethanol effect. All of these effects of alcoholism lead to “child adjustment difficulties which may include depression.