More than one in 10 children in the US live with an alcoholic parent and are at increased risk of developing health problems of their own, according to a new government study released yesterday.

Researchers at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration analysed national survey data from 2005 to 2010 and found that, on average, 7.5million children - or about 10.5% of the under-18 population in the US - lived with a parent who abused alcohol during any given year.

Most of those children - an average of 6.1million each year - lived in two-parent households where one or both of the adults had a drinking disorder, the researchers found.

Of the 1.4million children who lived in a single-parent home where the adult had a drinking problem, the overwhelming majority - 1.1million - were in female-headed households, Samhsa said.

The researchers said children living with alcoholics were at greater risk of suffering from mental health problems, including depression and anxiety.

The children were also more likely to be abused or neglected by their parents, more likely to have cognitive or language deficiencies, and four times more likely to develop alcohol problems of their own, the researchers said.