Collateral Consequences of the United States Opioid Epidemic for Children

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Project Summary The applicant, Mr. Kenneth Feder, proposes to investigate and quantify the collateral consequences of the United States' ongoing prescription opioid and heroin epidemic for children who are growing up in households and communities where adults engage in illicit use of these substances. This research will be conducted as part of the applicant's doctoral training, which, in addition to the proposed dissertation project, will also include: (a) mentorship from directors and faculty of two academic public health Centers at Johns Hopkins dedicated to child sexual abuse prevention and mental health and addiction policy respectively; (b) coursework in biostatistical methods and social and family policy; and (c) opportunities to build research dissemination skills including didactic presentations, grant-writing, and refereed publications. The proposed research and training will prepare the applicant for a career as an independent investigator studying the impact of family substance use and mental illness on child wellbeing and children's need for public health and child welfare services. The United States is in the midst of an epidemic of illicit opioid use. While most research on the opioid epidemic has focused on adults, the extent of illicit opioid use is likely having negative collateral consequences for the children. In particular, children growing in households and neighborhoods where adults engage in illicit opioid use may be at increased risk for exposure to trauma. Because an abundance of evidence links trauma exposure to both adolescent and adult adverse health outcomes, the opioid epidemic's impact on children presents a long-term threat to population health that may echo across generations and into the future. Currently, there is insufficient research on the population health impact of caregiver and community opioid use to inform the public health response to the ongoing epidemic. There are no recent estimates of trends in children's exposure to illicit parent or caregiver opioid use, no estimates of the collateral health, behavioral, or educational consequences of parent or caregiver opioid use in representative samples, and no estimates of increased child welfare contact attributable to the epidemic. The applicant proposes a multi-part investigation of the opioid epidemic's impact on children. The proposed project will examine 1) children's exposure to caregiver illicit opioid, 2) harmful consequences of this exposure, and 3) changes in child victimization and use of child welfare services resulting from rising rates of opioid use. All Aims will be investigated with existing public surveys and administrative data conducive to reproducible research and immediate policy application. The proposed project is consistent with NIDA's goal to increase the public health impact of its research ? specifically, with the objective to ?determine the impact of drug use and addiction on individuals, families, peers, and society.? The project is also addresses a priority funding topic ? the ongoing opioid epidemic.