Cumulative contextual risk and behavior problems among children with substance using mothers: The mediating role of mothers' and children's coping strategies.

Abstract

Substance using mothers vary in their exposure to an accumulation of contextual risks associated with their drug-using lifestyles, likely leading to variability in their children's behavioral outcomes. The present study examined a mediation model interrelating mothers' cumulative risk exposure, children's behavior problems, and coping strategies of both mothers and children. Findings showed that mothers' greater exposure to cumulative risk was associated with lower utilization of task-oriented coping and higher utilization of emotion-oriented coping. Further, mothers' emotion-oriented coping mediated the association between mothers' cumulative risk exposure and children's behavior problems. These findings underscore the importance of considering the family socialization context in understanding children's problem behaviors in a high-risk population. The finding that mothers' emotion-oriented coping exerted a strong influence on children's behavior problems suggests that emotion-oriented coping may be a critical intervention target for family based prevention interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record