Comment; Interesting. I thought the type of preferred substance abuse was more genetically implanted. Some folks prefer alcohol, others stimulants, some opioids and perhaps others hallucinogens or sedatives of some sort. This study implies that the type of preferred substance for abuse may be predicated by parental discipline style. What about the parents who don’t use physical/punitive parenting? An invitation for further study?
&Nancy Jo Kepple , PhD
Pages 262-283 | Received 20 Dec 2017, Accepted 08 Mar 2018, Published online: 15 Jul 2019
In this article
AbstractFormulae display:?
Very little is known about how the type of substance use is comparatively related to a range of parenting behaviors. We conduct a preliminary examination to ascertain effects of substance type on physical abuse compared with other child discipline tactics with data from a telephone survey in 2009 of 3,023 parents in 50 cities in California. Kruskal-Wallis tests and hierarchical generalized linear models are conducted to determine the relationship between substance type and frequency of nonviolent discipline, corporal punishment, and child physical abuse. Type of drug used is differentially related to use of discipline strategies in multivariate models. Nonviolent discipline and corporal punishment show a dose–response relationship when a parent who reported using more substances also reported using both types of discipline more frequently. We suggest that addiction professionals should consider partnering with a specialist in child development or child welfare to conduct in-depth assessments of parenting strategies among the highest-risk groups, such as those with past-year alcohol use or a history of polysubstance use or methamphetamine use.KEYWORDS: Alcohol and other drug use, corporal punishment, nonviolent discipline, physical abuse, substance type
Approximately 12% of children in the United States live with at least one parent who meets criteria for alcohol and/or other drug use disorders (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2014Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2014). Results from the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of national findings (NSDUH Series H-48. HHS Publication No. (SMA) 14-4863). Rockville, MD: Author. [Google Scholar]), with more children likely residing with at least one parent engaging in high-risk alcohol and/or other drug use (Manning, Best., Faulkner, & Titherington, 2009Manning, V., Best., D. W., Faulkner, N., & Titherington, E.(2009). New estimates of the number of children living with substance misusing parents: Results from UK national household surveys. BMC Public Health, 9(377), 1–12. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-9-253[Crossref], [PubMed], , [Google Scholar]). 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Both parental substance use and child physical abuse are considered adverse childhood experiences (ACE); experiencing a cluster of these ACEs has been shown to be related to variety of physical health conditions in adulthood (Batten, Aslan, Maciejewski, & Mazure, 2004Batten, S. V., Aslan, M., Maciejewski, P. K., & Mazure, C. M. (2004). Childhood maltreatment as a risk factor for adult cardiovascular disease and depression. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 65(2), 249–254. doi:10.4088/JCP.v65n0217[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], , [Google Scholar]; Dube et al., 2009Dube, S. R., Fairweather, D., Pearson, W. S., Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., & Croft, J. B. (2009). Cumulative childhood stress and autoimmune diseases in adults. Psychosomatic Medicine, 71(2), 243–250. doi:10.1097/PSY.0b013e3181907888[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], , [Google Scholar]; Felitti et al., 1998Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., … Marks, J. 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This study conducted an exploratory analysis guided by evidence that (a) specific types of psychoactive substances vary relatively in their scale and degree of harm to the individual user and to others (Nutt, King, & Phillips, 2010Nutt, D. J., King, L. A., & Phillips, L. D. (2010). Drug harms in the UK: A multi-criteria decision analysis. The Lancet, 376(9752), 1558–1565. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61462-6[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], , [Google Scholar]), and (b) discipline tactics used by parents encompass a wide range of parenting behaviors from nonviolent discipline to corporal punishment to physical assault (Straus, Hamby, Finkelhor, Moore, & Runyan, 1998Straus, M. A., Hamby, S. L., Finkelhor, D., Moore, D. W., & Runyan, D. (1998). Identification of child maltreatment with the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales: Development and psychometric data for a national sample of American parents. 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First, each type of psychoactive substance has drug-specific effects that can result in different degrees of substance-related harm to self (e.g., neuropsychological impairments, loss of tangible resources, or strained social relations) and to others (e.g., injury, family adversities; Nutt et al., 2010Nutt, D. J., King, L. A., & Phillips, L. D. (2010). Drug harms in the UK: A multi-criteria decision analysis. The Lancet, 376(9752), 1558–1565. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61462-6[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], , [Google Scholar]), which mirror findings in works that have identified alcohol and other drug use as risks for child physical abuse (Stith et al., 2009Stith, S. M., Liu, T., Davies, L. C., Boykin, E. L., Alder, M. C., Harris, J. M., & Dees, J. E. M. E. G. (2009). Risk factors in child maltreatment: A meta-analytic review of the literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 14(1), 13–29. doi:10.1016/j.avb.2006.03.006[Crossref], [Web of Science ®], , [Google Scholar]). Nutt et al. (2010Nutt, D. J., King, L. A., & Phillips, L. D. (2010). Drug harms in the UK: A multi-criteria decision analysis. The Lancet, 376(9752), 1558–1565. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61462-6[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], , [Google Scholar]) compared overall harms across drug type; they found the greatest potential for harm (in ranked order from most harmful to least) was observed for alcohol, heroin, crack cocaine, and methamphetamine; cannabis was observed to have a middle-range harm score (Nutt et al., 2010Nutt, D. J., King, L. A., & Phillips, L. D. (2010). Drug harms in the UK: A multi-criteria decision analysis. The Lancet, 376(9752), 1558–1565. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61462-6[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], , [Google Scholar]). This study examines whether we see comparative differences in drug-specific harms when solely focusing on aggressive parenting approaches.
Second, discipline strategies can range from nonviolent discipline (e.g., time-outs, loss of privileges) to corporal punishment (e.g., spanking, slap on body) to more severe physical assault associated with child physical abuse (e.g., kicked hard, hit on head; Straus et al., 1998Straus, M. A., Hamby, S. L., Finkelhor, D., Moore, D. W., & Runyan, D. (1998). Identification of child maltreatment with the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales: Development and psychometric data for a national sample of American parents. Child Abuse & Neglect, 22(4), 249–270. doi:10.1016/S0145-2134(97)00174-9[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], , [Google Scholar]). Nonviolent child discipline is common practice in the United States; however, prior work has shown that parents who frequently depend upon nonviolent strategies are more likely to also use psychologically and physically aggressive strategies with their children (Straus et al., 1998Straus, M. A., Hamby, S. L., Finkelhor, D., Moore, D. W., & Runyan, D. (1998). Identification of child maltreatment with the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales: Development and psychometric data for a national sample of American parents. Child Abuse & Neglect, 22(4), 249–270. doi:10.1016/S0145-2134(97)00174-9[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], , [Google Scholar]). High frequency of nonviolent strategies may also indicate an over-reactive parenting style, which aligns with an authoritarian style of discipline and has previously been associated with a higher likelihood of children demonstrating externalizing child behaviors (Prinzie, van der Sluis, de Haan, & Dekovic, 2010Prinzie, P., van der Sluis, C. M., de Haan, A. D., & Dekovic, M. (2010). The mediational role of parenting on the longitudinal relation between child personality and externalizing behavior. Journal of Personality, 78(4), 1301–1323. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2010.00651.x[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], , [Google Scholar]; Rhoades & O’Leary, 2007Rhoades, K. A., & O’Leary, S. G. (2007). Factor structure and validity of the Parenting Scale. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 36(2), 137–146. doi:10.1080/15374410701274157[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®], , [Google Scholar]). Violent child discipline, which we refer to as punitive parenting strategies in this article, remains a pervasive practice in the United States with estimates as high as 75% for less severe forms of physical discipline (i.e., slapping; Gershoff, 2013Gershoff, E. T. (2013). Spanking and child development: We know enough now to stop hitting our children. Child Development Perspectives, 7(3), 133–137. doi:10.1111/cdep.12038[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], , [Google Scholar]) and 10% of children under 17 reporting experiences of physical abuse (Finkelhor, Turner, Shattuck, & Hamby, 2015Finkelhor, D., Turner, H. A., Shattuck, A., & Hamby, S. L.(2015). Prevalence of childhood exposure to violence, crime, and abuse: Results from the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence. JAMA Pediatrics, 169(8), 746–754. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.0676[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], , [Google Scholar]). A recent meta-analysis demonstrated that even spanking alone is associated with adverse child outcomes we often associate with child physical abuse, such as impaired cognitive ability, low levels of self-esteem and self-regulation, and struggles with mental health or substance abuse during childhood and later adulthood (Gershoff & Grogan-Kaylor, 2016Gershoff, E. T., & Grogan-Kaylor, A. (2016). Spanking and child outcomes: Old controversies and new meta-analyses. Journal of Family Psychology, 30(4), 453–469. doi:10.1037/fam0000191[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], , [Google Scholar]).
With these concepts in mind, this study built upon the prior literature by exploring the frequency of parenting behaviors across a range of discipline strategies (i.e., nonviolent, corporal punishment, physical abuse) by type of substance used. The purpose of this exploratory analysis is to provide initial insight into differential risk for child harm by substance type.
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