Parental substance use disorder and child abuse: risk factors for child maltreatment?

Anna Goldberg*, Eric Blaauw

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Although the literature consistently shows an association between parental substance use disorders (SUDs) and child abuse, it is unknown what factors discern non-abusive and abusive parents with SUDs. This study aims to investigate which specific risk factors are associated with child abuse in clinically treated parents with SUDs in the Netherlands. It examines two groups of parents with SUDs in a clinical setting, with and without known instances of child abuse. These groups were compared on SUD-related factors such as the type and severity of the SUDs, and variables addressing psychological disability such as comorbid diagnoses and quality of life. Besides a marginally significant difference in severity of addiction and a lower mean age of the parents in the child abuse group, no significant differences were found. The small sample size and the inherent difficulty of studying SUDs in a clinical sample likely affected the results.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)959-969
Number of pages11
JournalPsychiatry Psychology and Law
Volume26
Issue number6
Early online date7 Oct 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Nov 2019

Keywords

  • substance use disorder (SUD)
  • domestic violence
  • child abuse
  • NATIONAL EPIDEMIOLOGIC SURVEY
  • ALCOHOL
  • PREDICTORS
  • INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE
  • HEALTH
  • ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY-DISORDER

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