What Are the Effects of Parental Substance Abuse on the Family?

Question by Sharysse F: what are the effects of parental substance abuse on the family?
how can it lead to child abuse, juvenile delinquency,financial difficulties and what problems do th family face as a result.

Best answer:

Answer by starlight_940
Drug addiction is a chronic, progressive disorder. It is characterized by cycles of abuse, decreased use, relapse and more abuse. For an addicted parent, the day revolves around the
need to procure and use the drug of choice, and then to recover from its affects. Important activities — familial, social, occupational — are given up or reduced because of the substance abuse. For these parents, the responsibility to protect and sustain their children is less important than the parent’s need for the euphoria produced by the drug.

As a result of substance abuse, children may be left alone or unsupervised for long periods of time. Often young children make a valiant effort to parent even younger children. Some children care for their incapacitated parents. Family resources needed for food and other necessities may be bartered for drugs. In extreme cases, children are offered for drugs.

Alcohol abuse appears to be the drug most often associated with physical abuse. Greater degrees of alcohol abuse appear to correlate with increased physical violence. Cocaine abuse by parent puts children at increased risk for sexual abuse due to a lack of boundaries, and to exposure to non-family contacts in houses where drug dealing takes place.

Research has documented that children of substance-abusing parents are more at risk than their peers for alcohol and drug use, delinquency, depression, and poor school performance.2 One study documented that one in five drug abusers in treatment programs in the United States was exposed to illegal substances for the first time through parents.

Child development researchers have accumulated substantial evidence which shows that neglected and abused infants and toddlers fail to develop secure attachments with their primary caregivers. The lack of secure attachment relationships will hinder a child’s ability to develop feelings of competence. Neglected children tend to be passive and socially withdrawn in their interactions with peers, while abused children tend to imitate the more aggressive behavior of the abusive caregiver.

PSA: Drug Addicted Parents & Child Abuse — Senior Project Product PSA: Demonstrating how substance abusing parents affects their children.