Maternal Drug Abuse versus Other Psychological Disturbances: Risks and Resilience among Children

Abstract

The primary thesis of this chapter is one that flies in the face of rampant stereotypes: that maternal drug abuse is not necessarily more damaging to children's social-emotional well-being than are other maternal psychiatric disorders. It is widely believed that women who abuse illicit drugs are not just dissolute as individuals but also deplorable as parents, with children who, more so than offspring of parents with other mental illnesses, are disruptive, disturbed, or dysphoric. Empirical evidence supporting such beliefs, however, is tenuous at best. In this chapter, we present data from our own ongoing research to elucidate adjustment patterns among children whose mothers have histories of drug abuse. Our primary objective is to disentangle the degree to which risks to children accrue from maternal histories of drug abuse per se, rather than from various other adversities with which this disorder typically coexists.