Maternal Drug Abuse Psychopathology and Child Adaptation

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application requests continuation of funding to support research on the role of maternal drug abuse, as opposed to other commonly co-occurring psychiatric disorders, in relation to children's adjustment outcomes. Our group is currently in the process of obtaining comprehensive data on maladjustment, competence, and vulnerability and protective factors in a sample of 8-17 year old children and their mothers. We anticipate a total baseline sample of about 350 child-mother dyads, and almost half of the mothers will have diagnoses of cocaine/opioid dependence or abuse. In the proposed project, we seek to re-assess this cohort approximately four years after the initial assessments. Specific aims are to examine: (1) the degree to which maternal drug abuse/dependence, as opposed to affective and anxiety diagnoses which are commonly comorbid problems, are linked with escalations in children's maladjustment over time; (2) the degree to which proximal indicators of disturbed family functioning are linked with increases in children's psychopathology over time, and mediate effects of lifetime maternal diagnoses; (3) the role of protective forces at the level of the child, the family, and the community; (4) the degree to which child psychopathology might presages increases in mothers' distress over time. The baseline study entailed measurement of diverse influences at the individual, family and community levels, with the use of a multi-method, multi-informant assessment strategy. Child outcomes were assessed in terms of both diagnostic and dimensional indicators of maladjustment, as well as aspects of everyday competence. To our knowledge, this will be among the first studies to obtain this breadth of prospective assessments on a large cohort of older children of addicted mothers, with a matched comparison sample. Given the developmental periods encompassed with half the youth in mid-adolescence at follow-up, and half approaching adulthood- we will be able to examine factors implicated both in the onset, and the crystallization, of serious adjustment problems such as substance abuse and conduct disturbances. Findings are also expected to be highly informative for treatments and policies affecting addicted mothers and their children, underscoring, for example, the critical need for attention to these mother's psychological and parenting problems in addition to issues of abstinence, and countering myths that these women are inevitably more inimical for minor children in their care than are any other highly stressed mothers, living in urban poverty.