Parents with special problems: Alcoholism and opiate addiction

Abstract

This study, recently completed at the Washingtonian Center for Addictions in Boston, was designed to investigate the adequacy of child care in families with an alcohol or opiate addicted parent. Two hundred addicted parents, 92 alcoholics and 108 opiate addicts participated in the study. Although alcohol and opiate addicted parents were equally likely to be unemployed, they differed on age, sex, race, education and illegal activities. Alcoholics were older, more likely to be male and Caucasian, more educated and less likely to have an illegal source of income or to have been arrested than opiate addicted parents. Parents were asked about the care of their children in structured interviews. Raters then determined for each parent whether or not a child cared for by that parent had been physically or sexually abused and/or neglected. Physical or sexual abuse of a child was determined to have occurred in 22.5% of the 200 families with an alcohol or opiate addicted parent. Children in all of the families with an alcohol or opiate addicted parent experienced some degree of neglect. In 30.5% of the 200 families children were considered to have been seriously neglected. When information on abuse and neglect of a child were combined, abuse and/or neglect of a child was found to have occurred in 41% of the families with an alcohol or opiate addicted parent. There were no differences in the frequency with which child abuse or neglect occurred in families with an alcohol or opiate addicted parent.