IMPACT OF CHILD NEGLECT IN SUBSTANCE ABUSE FAMILIES

University Of Pittsburgh At Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA

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Abstract

Male and female children (N=300) of proband fathers with or without DSM-IV Substance Use Disorder (SUD) will be prospectively studies in a panel design to determine the impact of parental SUD on medical/dental psychological and educational neglect. In each of these latter neglect domains, severity will be measured according to "failure to provide" and "level of supervision". Guided by contemporary developmental psychopathology research and theory, parent (substance abuse, psychopathology, self- regulation) and child (self-regulation) characteristics are hypothesized to conjointly determine the quality of the dyadic relationship culminating in neglect. The severity of physical, psychological and educational outcomes (e.g., dental neglect yields cavities, disease, tooth fractures, etc.; educational neglect yields school failure, truancy, etc.) is hypothesized to covary with and predict substance use and health risk behaviors. The relative influence of contextual factors (e.g. availability of supportive other adults, older sibling serving as a parent substitute, etc.) on the impact of parental neglect will be determined. In addition, the extent to which the impact of neglect can be attenuated by individual protective resources (e.g. coping skills, high intelligence, high self-esteem) to result in resilient outcomes will also be delineated. The project is innovative in several key respects: 1) it focuses on neglect in the population of older youth and adolescents which has not been systematically researched; 2) consistent with developmental theory, this project investigates neglect as the outcome of both parent and child characteristics; 3) it enables prospectively tracking intraindividual factors in familial context that increase or decrease the risk for neglect and subsequent outcomes; 4) it characterizes neglect in an age appropriate manner within a symmetrical measurement schema consisting of 3 types of neglect x 2 types of parental manifestation (see above); and, 5) it provides the opportunity to delineate the impact substance use disorder on child neglect and subsequent outcomes which portend resilience as well as adverse sequelae.