Maternal drug abuse versus maternal depression: Vulnerability and resilience among school-age and adolescent offspring

In this study of 360 low-income mother–child dyads, our primary goal was to disentangle risks linked with commonly co-occurring maternal diagnoses: substance abuse and affective/anxiety disorders. Variable- and person-based analyses suggest that, at least through children's early adolescence, maternal drug use is no more inimical for them than is maternal depression. A second goal was to illuminate vulnerability and protective processes linked with mothers' everyday functioning, and results showed that negative parenting behaviors were linked with multiple adverse child outcomes. Conversely, the other parenting dimensions showed more domain specificity; parenting stress was linked with children's lifetime diagnoses, and limit setting and closeness with children's externalizing problems and everyday competence, respectively. Results are discussed in terms of implications for resilience theory, interventions, and social policy.Preparation of this manuscript was funded in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (RO1-DA10726, RO1-DA11498, and R01-DA14385).

[1]  S. Luthar,et al.  Relational Psychotherapy Mothers' Group: A randomized clinical trial for substance abusing mothers , 2007, Development and Psychopathology.

[2]  V. Phares,et al.  Coping with parental loss because of termination of parental rights. , 2005, Child welfare.

[3]  Andrés Martin.  Resilience and Vulnerability: Adaptation in the Context of Childhood Adversities. , 2005 .

[4]  S. Luthar,et al.  Comparable “risks” at the socioeconomic status extremes: Preadolescents' perceptions of parenting , 2005, Development and Psychopathology.

[5]  John H Krystal,et al.  Social supports and serotonin transporter gene moderate depression in maltreated children. , 2004, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[6]  D. Cicchetti,et al.  Expressed emotion in multiple subsystems of the families of toddlers with depressed mothers , 2004, Development and Psychopathology.

[7]  J. Dyer-Friedman,et al.  Patterns of Agreement Between Parent and Child Ratings of Emotional and Behavioral Problems in an Outpatient Clinical Setting: When Children Endorse More Problems , 2004, Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBP.

[8]  Craig A. Wendorf.  Primer on Multiple Regression Coding: Common Forms and the Additional Case of Repeated Contrasts , 2004 .

[9]  A. Caspi,et al.  Influence of Life Stress on Depression: Moderation by a Polymorphism in the 5-HTT Gene , 2003, Science.

[10]  C. Hammen.  Risk and Protective Factors for Children of Depressed Parents , 2003 .

[11]  D. Cicchetti.  The impact of social experience on neurobiological systems: illustration from a constructivist view of child maltreatment , 2002 .

[12]  T. Ollendick,et al.  Issues in Parent-Child Agreement: The Case of Structured Diagnostic Interviews , 2002, Clinical child and family psychology review.

[13]  S. Luthar,et al.  The Mediating Role of Parenting Stress in Methadone-Maintained Mothers' Parenting , 2001, Parenting, science and practice.

[14]  A. Sameroff.  Developmental systems and psychopathology , 2000, Development and Psychopathology.

[15]  K. Lyons-Ruth,et al.  Depression and the Parenting of Young Children: Making the Case for Early Preventive Mental Health Services , 2000, Harvard review of psychiatry.

[16]  M. Lovejoy,et al.  Maternal depression and parenting behavior: a meta-analytic review. , 2000, Clinical psychology review.

[17]  S. Luthar,et al.  Relational Psychotherapy Mothers' Group: A developmentally informed intervention for at-risk mothers , 2000, Development and Psychopathology.

[18]  S. Luthar,et al.  The construct of resilience: a critical evaluation and guidelines for future work. , 2000, Child development.

[19]  S. Smoyak.  Mental health: a report of the Surgeon General. , 2000, Journal of psychosocial nursing and mental health services.

[20]  L A Kettinger,et al.  Exposure to Environmental Risk Factors and Parenting Attitudes Among Substance-Abusing Women , 2000, The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse.

[21]  S. Luthar,et al.  Neighborhood influences and child development: A prospective study of substance abusers' offspring , 1999, Development and Psychopathology.

[22]  S. Hans,et al.  The role of psychopathology in the parenting of drug-dependent women , 1999, Development and Psychopathology.

[23]  M. Weissman,et al.  Risk/protective factors among addicted mothers' offspring: a replication study. , 1999, The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse.

[24]  T. Rosen,et al.  An ecological approach to development in children with prenatal drug exposure. , 1999, The American journal of orthopsychiatry.

[25]  L. Wakschlag,et al.  Relation of maternal responsiveness during infancy to the development of behavior problems in high-risk youths. , 1999, Developmental psychology.

[26]  David Walker,et al.  Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC) , 1999 .

[27]  L. Huffman.  Developmental Psychopathology: Perspectives on Adjustment, Risk, and Disorder , 1998 .

[28]  A. Schatzberg,et al.  Prevalence of anxiety disorders and their comorbidity with mood and addictive disorders , 1998, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[29]  J G Barbee,et al.  Mixed Symptoms and Syndromes of Anxiety and Depression: Diagnostic, Prognostic, and Etiologic Issues , 1998, Annals of clinical psychiatry : official journal of the American Academy of Clinical Psychiatrists.

[30]  S. Luthar,et al.  Multiple jeopardy: Risk and protective factors among addicted mothers' offspring , 1998, Development and Psychopathology.

[31]  J. Rosenbaum,et al.  Expressed emotion toward children with behavioral inhibition: associations with maternal anxiety disorder. , 1997, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[32]  D. Beidel,et al.  At risk for anxiety: I. Psychopathology in the offspring of anxious parents. , 1997, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[33]  T. Grisso,et al.  Review of Instruments Assessing Parenting Competencies used in Child Custody Evaluations , 1996 .

[34]  Christopher T. Barry,et al.  Clinical Assessment of Child and Adolescent Personality and Behavior , 1996 .

[35]  J. Biederman,et al.  Pilot study of behavioral and emotional disturbances in the high-risk children of parents with opioid dependence. , 1995, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[36]  R. Flanagan.  A Review of the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC): Assessment Consistent with the Requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). , 1995 .

[37]  L. Adamson,et al.  Mothers' expressed attitudes: associations with maternal depression and children's self-esteem and psychopathology. , 1994, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[38]  F. Garrity-Rokous.  Punitive legal approaches to the problem of prenatal drug exposure , 1994 .

[39]  C. Greenwood,et al.  Behavioral Outcomes of Young Children Prenatally Exposed to Illicit Drugs , 1994 .

[40]  M. M. de Cubas,et al.  Children of methadone-dependent women: developmental outcomes. , 1993, The American journal of orthopsychiatry.

[41]  D S Rae,et al.  Comorbidity of mental disorders with alcohol and other drug abuse. Results from the Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) Study. , 1990, JAMA.

[42]  A. Farmer,et al.  The Composite International Diagnostic Interview. An epidemiologic Instrument suitable for use in conjunction with different diagnostic systems and in different cultures. , 1988, Archives of general psychiatry.

[43]  S. Luthar,et al.  Research on resilience: An integrative review , 2003 .

[44]  M. Cox,et al.  Parent-child relationships. , 2003 .

[45]  I. Gotlib,et al.  Children of depressed parents : mechanisms of risk and implications for treatment , 2002 .

[46]  E. McClure,et al.  Parental Anxiety Disorders, Child Anxiety Disorders, and the Perceived Parent–Child Relationship in an Australian High-Risk Sample , 2001, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[47]  D. Shaffer,et al.  NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children Version IV (NIMH DISC-IV): description, differences from previous versions, and reliability of some common diagnoses. , 2000, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[48]  Terri Gullickson,et al.  Clinical Assessment of Child and Adolescent Personality and Behavior. , 1996 .

[49]  L. Mayes,et al.  Substance abuse and parenting. , 1995 .

[50]  Jack J. Husted,et al.  A comparison of two computer-administered versions of the NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule. , 1992, Journal of psychiatric research.

[51]  W. Tryon,et al.  Issues of validity in the Diagnostic Interview Schedule. , 1992, Journal of psychiatric research.

[52]  M. Gould,et al.  Aggregating data from multiple informants in child psychiatry epidemiological research. , 1992, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[53]  M. Stitelman.  Expressed emotion. , 1987, The American journal of psychiatry.

[54]  P. Berman,et al.  Children's Reconstructions of the Horizontal, Vertical, and Oblique in the Absence of a Rectangular Frame. , 1975 .

[55]  S. Seitz,et al.  Imitations and Expansions: Some Developmental Aspects of Mother-Child Communications. , 1975 .