Research articleModeling risk for child abuse and harsh parenting in families with depressed and substance-abusing parents☆
Section snippets
Parenting Behavior and Risk for Child Maltreatment among Parents with SUD
Mothers with SUD exhibit less warmth and sensitivity and use harsher discipline with their children than mothers without SUD (see Gruber & Taylor, 2006 for a review; Hien and Honeyman, 2000, Pears et al., 2007). Children of opioid-using, alcohol-using, or dual substance-using mothers, for example, endorsed high levels of maternal rejection, psychological control, and inconsistent discipline on the Child's Report of Parenting Behavior Inventory (CRPBI; Slesnick, Feng, Brakenhoff, & Brigham, 2014
Participants
The sample consisted of 85 heterosexual couples in which the father only (n = 52) or both parents (n = 33) met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (4th ed., text rev.; DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) criteria for a drug and/or AUD. Families were recruited for a larger study examining the effects of parental treatment for SUD on their children at one of two outpatient treatment centers (one in western New York, one in southeastern Virginia). Data for the present study were obtained
Preliminary Analyses
Data were first examined for missing values and outliers. Boxplots revealed no univariate outliers (i.e., outside the three interquartile range) on fathers’ or mothers’ depressive symptoms (assessed by the CES-D), child abuse potential (assessed by the BCAP), or overreactivity (assessed by the PS) among father SUD couples or dual SUD couples. Missing data ranged from 5.88% on mothers’ depressive symptoms to 12.94% on fathers’ depressive symptoms, child abuse potential, and overreactivity.
Discussion
Parental SUD is associated with overly punitive parenting and child maltreatment (see Staton-Tindall et al., 2013 for a review). Relative to our understanding of maternal SUD and depression and risk for child maltreatment, we know less about the impact of fathers’ SUD and depressive symptoms on risk for child maltreatment and overreactivity during disciplinary encounters. Furthermore, whether partners’ depressive symptoms have crossover effects on their partners’ reports of risk for
Conclusions
Results of two multigroup structural equation models using an actor–partner interdependence framework revealed that mothers and fathers’ own reports of depressive symptoms predicted their risk for child maltreatment and overreactivity in disciplinary episodes in both father SUD and dual SUD couples. In all models, partners’ depressive symptoms did not predict their partner's risk for child maltreatment or overreactivity. Findings demonstrate the importance of a parent's own levels of depressive
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the families that participated and members of the research and clinical team who assisted with work.
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This work was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse R01 DA024740 to the first author.