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Interplay of Parental Substance Use and Child Neglect Differs With Depression, Social Ties
Efforts to mitigate child neglect should look beyond the presence of substance use to also factor in parental mental health and social companionship, according to a study published in the journal Children and Youth Services Review.
“Neglect is highly contextual,” said study lead author Nancy Kepple, PhD, of the University of Kansas, Lawrence. “There are lots of reasons it might be occurring, and that’s what we need to understand and further explore. We can’t just say ‘there’s substance misuse, that’s a problem,’ or ‘they have social support, that’s good.’ When you break these things down, context matters.”
The finding stems from a study involving 3545 parents of children aged 2 to 17 from Wave 4 data collection of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being.
The relationship between parental substance use behaviors and neglectful behavior toward children varied depending on whether parents had clinical depression and the types of social ties in their lives, the study found.
For parents with clinical depression, parental substance use disorder was linked with higher annual child neglect frequency, according to the study. Although tangible social supports to help raise children were linked with a lower annual neglect frequency, social companionship was associated with higher neglect frequency.
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“For parents who have clinical depression, their substance use does not seem to have as large of an effect if they have social supports that can provide tangible resources to help care for the child,” said Dr Kepple. “Interestingly, having more people to spend time with and who can pull parents out of their home may create opportunities for neglect. People in our lives can pull us away from our responsibilities as much as they can help us navigate through challenges.”
For parents without depression, risky substance use behaviors as well as meeting criteria for a substance use disorder both contributed to higher neglect frequencies but were dependent on levels of social companionship. For instance, parents with a substance use disorder reporting 3 or more sources of social companionship had an increased risk of child neglect.
Future research will further examine the types of social interactions parents have and how each influences neglect of children. In the meantime, solutions to neglect should look beyond simple abstinence of substance use to include affective functioning and social context, researchers advised.
“These findings suggest an individualized plan is likely the best plan, given the complex interactions that are occurring among different risk and protective factors,” Dr Kepple said. “If systems mandate a parent remain abstinent from alcohol or substance use without addressing underlying mental health or social supports needs, we are not addressing the whole picture.”
—Jolynn Tumolo
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