Table 2.

Select Studies of the Association Between Parental Substance Use and Parenting Vulnerabilities

Source	Construct	Participants	Procedure	Findings	Weaknesses	Strengths
Kandel (1990)	Parenting Styles	222 6–11 year-old children (92% fell within this age range) and at least one of their parents was included	Parents completed self-report measures of their parenting, their substance use over their lifetime (alcohol and illicit drugs) and over the past 12 months (alcohol only), and also reported on their children's behavior	Mothers with lifetime or current drug involvement and/or heavy drinking in the last year were more likely to use punitive forms of discipline and display less parental supervision, closeness, discussion, and positive involvement with their child; fathers with lifetime drug involvement showed less affection but more supervision of their child; fathers' alcohol and drug use over the past year was associated with less punitive discipline, and more discussions and positive involvement with their child	Small sample of fathers; possible bias in parental self report of parenting styles and behaviors; lacked statistical controls	Measured current and lifetime alcohol and drug use; included a community sample of both mothers and fathers
Eiden, Edwards, & Leonard (2002)	Parenting Styles	223 12-month-old infants and their parents; community sample of mothers and fathers with and without a SUD diagnosis; the control group was matched on demographic covariates	Parents completed measures of depression, antisocial behavior, family conflict, and infant temperament; observational measurements of parent-infant interactions and attachment were also conducted	Mothers and fathers with alcohol problems were significantly less likely to display sensitivity during interactions with their infant	Smaller sample of alcoholic mothers; possible bias in self report measures of parental alcohol use and psychopathology	Observational measures of parent-infant interactions were conducted; included a community sample of mothers and fathers; controlled for potential confounds
Bergin, & McCollough (2009)	Attachment Quality	70 12-month-old infants and their mothers; community sample of primarily single mothers (92%) at poverty level (93%) who were primarily polysubstance users; a matched control group of mothers was included	Infants and mothers were observed on measures of maternal involvement and maternal sensitivity; The Waters and Dean Attachment Behavior Q-Set observational measure was used	Attachment and maternal sensitivity were the same across groups, and the key predictors of attachment were maternal sensitivity and involvement—not maternal drug use; caregiving ability and social risk may be more predictive than maternal drug use of attachment patterns	Small sample; only assessed mother-child relations; assessment did not capture postnatal substance exposure, making it impossible to parse prenatal vs postnatal exposure effects on attachment	Attachment Behavior Q-Set measure provided more naturalistic observation of mother-child interactions; included community sample with a matched control-group
Kelleher, Chaffin, Hollenberg, & Fischer (1994)	Child Maltreatment	11,662 adults from four communities; 378 adults reported physical abuse or neglect of their child; a control group of 378 adults were matched on age, race, gender, community, SES	Participants completed the DIS; 5 items assessed abuse or neglect, and SUD diagnoses were established	Lifetime SUD diagnoses were significantly higher in abusive and neglectful parents than controls; parents with a SUD were 2.7 times more likely to report physically abusive behaviors and 4.2 times more likely to report neglect; SUD predicted abuse and neglect after controlling for confounds	Possible bias in parental report of abusive behaviors; no temporal ordering of abuse and substance abuse/dependence and therefore causal inferences were not possible	Structured diagnostic assessments were used; included a community sample; controlled for potential confounds
Ammerman, Kolko, Kirisci, Blackson, & Dawes (1999)	Child Maltreatment	290 10–12-year-old boys and their biological mothers and fathers both with and without a SUD diagnosis; families were intact	Parents completed the Child Abuse Potential Inventory, diagnostic measures, and additional self report measures; children completed measures about themselves and their parents	Abuse potential was significantly higher in mothers and fathers with a SUD history than in parents without a SUD; no differences in abuse potential between parents with a current diagnosis and with a past diagnosis; SUD history was only a significant predictor of fathers' abuse potential when other factors were controlled	Possible bias in parental self report of abusive behaviors; no direct measure of child abuse; only assessed physical abuse	Structured diagnostic assessments were used; included both mothers and fathers; controlled for potential confounds

Note: SUD= substance use disorders; DIS = Diagnostic Interview Schedule.