Some children are abused or neglected as a result of the drug and/or alcohol abuse of their parents or other caregivers. According to the National Survey on Child Drug Use and Health, about 5 million parents in the United States who abused alcohol had at least one child younger than age 18 living in the household in 2002. Alcohol abuse alone is associated with violence toward children and is estimated to be a factor in about 30% of all child abuse cases, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). An estimated one-third to two-thirds of all child maltreatment cases involve some form of substance abuse. As a result, children of substance-abusing parents are more likely to enter the foster-care system, and they are also more likely to stay in the system longer than children whose parents do not abuse alcohol and/or drugs.

Some drugs make it difficult or impossible for parents to manage an appropriate care-giving role, either because the drugs are heavily sedating (such as with marijuana, barbiturates and many narcotic painkillers) or are very stimulating (such as methamphetamine and cocaine).

For example, methamphetamine, which is an increasingly popular drug of abuse in the United States, stimulates the central nervous system and can induce many psychological effects, such as anger, panic and irritability, as well as psychotic features, such as paranoia and hallucinations. As a result, users may become violently aggressive to those around them. The drug can also cause heart failure, stroke, seizures and other severe health problems.

It is also true that methamphetamine laboratories, where the drug is clandestinely manufactured, are very dangerous because of the highly flammable materials that are needed to produce the drug. Clearly, a child is not safe in such an environment, and some states have passed laws making it illegal for a child to be in an environment where methamphetamine and/or other illegal drugs are produced.

States that consider it abuse or neglect to manufacture a controlled substance in the presence of a child or on the premises occupied by a child include Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, South Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia. States that consider it abuse or neglect if the chemicals or equipment used to manufacture controlled substances are used or stored where children are present include Arizona and New Mexico.

According to a report on methamphetamine abuse from the National Association of Counties, reported in 2005, the results of 500 counties in 45 states revealed that, "In an alarming number of meth arrests, there is a child living in the home. These children many times suffer from neglect and abuse." According to the research, 71% of the responding counties in California and 70% in Colorado reported an increase in children being placed out of their home because of methamphetamine abuse. In addition, when asked if the particular nature of the parent who was a methamphetamine user increased the difficulty of reuniting the children with their parents, the majority (59%) of the respondents said that it did.

Cocaine is another drug of abuse that stimulates the central nervous system. Cocaine is associated with depression, anxiety, panic attacks, violent rage and paranoid behavior. It is also associated with an increased risk for domestic violence. Cocaine use may increase the risk for suicidal behavior among users. It can also induce a psychotic break with symptoms that are difficult to distinguish from the symptoms found in a person with schizophrenia, such as hallucinations and paranoid behavior. In some cases, the individual will suffer a psychotic break from which he or she will not recover.

Clearly, such symptoms and behaviors are not conducive to even marginally effective parenting, and consequently, children who are living with a person dependent on cocaine are at risk for abuse and/or neglect.

State Laws

In 12 states and the District of Columbia, if there is evidence of drugs, alcohol or other controlled substances that are identified in newborn infants, this exposure is included under the state definition of child abuse or neglect. These states include Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. In addition, 12 states have specific reporting procedures for infants who were born exposed to drugs or alcohol, including Arizona, California, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma and Utah.

Predicting the Recurrence of Child Abuse

Two researchers sought to identify the key factors that predicted maltreatment recurrence, reporting their findings in Children and Youth Services Review in 2003.

The researchers collected data from 95 investigations in Illinois that involved alcohol or other drugs as part of the maltreatment allegation. Most subjects were African-American (60%), and the other subjects were about evenly split between Caucasians and Latinos. Most families (68%) were headed by a single parent. The most common form of maltreatment was neglect (38%), followed by exposing an infant to a substance (37%). Physical abuse (7%) and sexual abuse (2%) were much less frequently found.

The researchers found that there were several significant factors that were related to the recurrence of abuse or neglect; for example, among families in which protective service workers initially found the presence of parental substance use, these parents were 13 times more likely to maltreat their children again. Twenty-six percent of the parents with an alcohol or drug problem had another maltreatment report filed on them within 60 days of the first report.

Another highly predictive factor for repeated child abuse was whether criminal activity was present. If the protective worker noted a "high risk" for criminal activity in the initial report, the children in these cases were found to be 770 times more likely to be abused and/or neglected again than among the cases that were noted by the worker as having no risk for criminal activity. Since many illegal drug users engage in criminal activity to obtain illicit substances, this is yet another factor that increases the risk of child abuse to children of parents who abuse illegal drugs.

The Psychiatric Impact of Parental Substance Abuse

In addition to the greater risk of child abuse and neglect among children living with substance-abusing parents, some studies have shown that such children also have a significantly greater risk for the development of psychiatric disorders. In their study on psychiatric disorders among children living with drug-abusing, alcohol-abusing and non-substance abusing fathers, reported in a 2004 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, researchers Michelle L. Kelley and William Fals-Stewart found that children with substance-abusing fathers had a significantly higher risk for psychiatric disorders.

The researchers studied 120 two-parent couples with biological children, including 40 families that included fathers who met the American Psychiatric Association's criteria for having a cocaine or opiate use disorder; 40 fathers who met the criteria for alcohol dependence (alcoholism) but who did not have a drug abuse or drug dependence problem; and 40 fathers who had neither an alcohol nor a drug dependency. Twenty-five of the 40 fathers in the drug-abusing group (62.5%) had criminal or legal problems, compared to 22 of the fathers in the alcoholism group (55%) and two (5%) of the fathers in the non-substance abusing group.

The researchers also found that more than half the children (53%) of the drug-using fathers had a psychiatric diagnosis, compared to 25% of the alcoholic fathers and 10% of the non-substance abusing fathers. In considering depression alone, 38% of the children of the drug-using fathers were depressed, compared to 13 percent of the children of alcoholic fathers and 3% of the children whose fathers were not substance-dependent.

It should be pointed out that another possibly significant factor may be the presence of a psychiatric disorder among the alcohol- or drug-dependent parents. It may be possible that substance-abusing parents are themselves more likely to have psychiatric disorders than those who are not substance abusers, which may then indicate the presence of a genetic link that may be passed on to their offspring. Experts who study social problems and consider either genetic predispositions or environmental factors in causing psychiatric disorders continually study this issue and debate it among themselves. However, whatever the cause, substance-abusing parents are more likely to have children with emotional disorders, and this issue should be further studied.

References:

1)         Fuller, Tamara L., and Susan J. Wells. "Predicting Maltreatment Recurrence among CPS Cases with Alcohol and Other Drug Involvement." Children and Youth Services Review 25, no. 7 (2003): 553-569.

2)         Gwinnell, Esther, M.D., and Christine Adamec. The Encyclopedia of Addictions and Addictive Behaviors. New York: Facts On File, 2005.

3)         Kelley, Michelle L., and William Fals-Stewart. "Psychiatric Disorders of Children Living with Drug-Abusing, Alcohol-Abusing, and Non-Substance-Abusing Fathers." Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 43, no. 5 (May 2004): 621-628.

4)         Kyle, Angelo D., and Bill Hansell. The Meth Epidemic in America: Two Surveys of U.S. Counties: The Criminal Effect of Meth on Communities, The Impact of Meth on Children. Executive Summary, National Association of Counties, July 5, 2005.

5)         Office of Applied Studies. "Alcohol Dependence or Abuse among Parents with Children Living in the Home." NSDUH Report, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, February 12, 2004.

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