Family Protective Factors and Child Behavioral Health in Families Affected by Parental Substance Use Disorder and Child Maltreatment
Stanek, C., Chang, Y., Radney, A., Himmeger, M., McClellan, J., Lee, J. Y., Dellor, E., & Yoon, S. (2025)
Child maltreatment is a widescale public health crisis impacting approximately 600,000 children annually (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children’s Bureau, 2024). The presence of parental substance use disorder (PSUD) is a known risk factor for the occurrence of child maltreatment (Walsh et al., 2003). PSUD has also been identified as a significant risk factor for child internalizing and externalizing behaviors (Seay, 2020). Family resources such as social support, concrete resources, parenting knowledge, parent-child relationship, and family adaptive functioning may play a protective role in mitigating child internalizing and externalizing behaviors in the face of adversity (Formoso et al., 2000; Ozer et al., 2017; Pérez-González et al., 2017). However, little is known about the association between family resources and child behaviors in the context of family environments with co-occurring PSUD and child maltreatment. This topic is important to address to inform practice and policy efforts that can strengthen family resources promoting resilience among children facing both child maltreatment and PSUD.
The aim of this study was to 1) explore levels of protective factors for families with substance use disorder and 2) examine associations between family protective factors and child behaviors. Families (N=124) were recruited from Ohio START. A hierarchical linear regression model revealed that higher levels of family functioning (p=.029) and parenting knowledge (p<.001) were significantly associated with lower levels of child externalizing behaviors. Higher levels of family functioning (p=.012) and parenting knowledge (p<.001) were also associated with lower levels of internalizing behaviors.
Findings suggest that family-level factors may play a salient role in mitigating poor behavioral outcomes for children who have experienced child maltreatment and have a parent with SUD. As such, it is crucial that child needs are addressed alongside PSUD treatment, and that family functioning and parental education are targeted as points of intervention when addressing co-occurring PSUD and child maltreatment. Policymakers can increase funding allocation to support the development of more family-based interventions for PSUD across broader child welfare populations, with the inclusion of peer recovery supporters, to optimize parent and child health outcomes.
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