Mutual Dissatisfaction Between Mother and Son in Substance-Abusing and Normal Families

Abstract

This study compares relationship satisfaction between mother and son in families where the father either qualified for a diagnosis of psychoactive substance use disorder (SA+) or had no lifetime psychiatric diagnosis (SA-). The authors found that there was greater mutual dissatisfaction in SA+ families compared with SA- families. The magnitude of dissatisfaction cov-aried with behavioral disturbance in the children; however, in SA+ families, mother-son dissatisfaction correlated positively with externalizing and internalizing behaviors in the children, whereas in SA- families dissatisfaction correlated only with externalizing behaviors. The results suggest that in SA+families, generalized behavioral deviations in the child, combined with parent-offspring dissatisfaction, may facilitate the child's disengagement from parental influence and promote negative association with peers.