Date of Award

Spring 2002

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

Program/Concentration

Psychology

Committee Director

Michelle L. Kelley

Committee Member

William Fals-Stewart

Committee Member

Perry M. Duncan

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.P65 C668 2002

Abstract

Parental substance abuse is linked to many of the problems facing American children. Research suggests that children of substance abusing parents are more likely to exhibit emotional and behavioral disorders than children with parents who do not abuse substances (Hogan, 1998); however, previous investigations have focused almost exclusively on children whose fathers misuse alcohol. The purpose of the present study was: 1) to examine the psychosocial adjustment of children whose fathers manifest substance abuse disorder other than alcohol as compared to the psychosocial functioning of children whose fathers exhibit alcohol abuse and to the psychosocial adjustment of children in a normative sample; and 2) to determine the degree to which indices of the severity of paternal drug or alcohol use are correlated with reports of children's psychosocial functioning. Results indicate that children from homes with a drug abusing father exhibit higher levels of psychosocial dysfunction than do children from homes with an alcohol abusing father and children from a normative sample. Children of drug abusing fathers were also more likely to have scores indicative of clinical levels of psychosocial impairment than were children of alcohol abusing fathers and children in the normative sample. Additionally, for children with drug abusing fathers, child psychosocial functioning was positively correlated with the severity of the fathers' addiction. That is, higher addiction severity was related to greater psychosocial addiction. That is, higher addiction severity was related to greater psychosocial impairment for children in the drug abuse group. However, this relationship was not present in the alcohol group. These findings suggest that living with a male parent addicted to a substance other than alcohol may have a more detrimental impact on child functioning than living with a male parent addicted to alcohol.

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DOI

10.25777/h9k8-gn12

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