Parental substance use disorder and child abuse: risk factors for child maltreatment?

A.E. Goldberg, E. Blaauw

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

© 2019, © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.Although the literature consistently shows an association between parental substance use disorders (SUDs) and child abuse, it is unknown what factors discern non-abusive and abusive parents with SUDs. This study aims to investigate which specific risk factors are associated with child abuse in clinically treated parents with SUDs in the Netherlands. It examines two groups of parents with SUDs in a clinical setting, with and without known instances of child abuse. These groups were compared on SUD-related factors such as the type and severity of the SUDs, and variables addressing psychological disability such as comorbid diagnoses and quality of life. Other than a marginally significant difference in severity of addiction and a lower mean age of the parents in the child abuse group, no significant differences were found. The small sample size and the inherent difficulty of studying SUDs in a clinical sample is likely to have affected the results.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)959-969
JournalPsychiatry, Psychology and Law
Volume26
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Nov 2019
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Parental substance use disorder and child abuse: risk factors for child maltreatment?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this