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CHILD MALTREATMENT AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE​


- STATISTICS -

Sources:


Childhelp.Org

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. Study of child maltreatment in alcohol abusing families. 

Association of drug abuse and child abuse. Child Abuse and Neglect

Effects on parents and children. When drug addicts have children: Reorienting child welfare's response 

Substance abuse doesn't just hurt the abuser. So many more people are affected by the actions of those with chemical dependencies. Most disturbing among these victims are children. A study done in the connection between substance abuse issues and child maltreatment found that 40 percent of confirmed cases of child maltreatment involved the use of alcohol or other drugs (www.childabuse.com). Alcohol and other substances impair judgment and can act as disinhibitors. This weakens impulse control making parents more susceptible to abusive behavior.


Substance abuse is an element of the definition of child abuse or neglect in many States. Five circumstances that are considered abuse or neglect in some States include:

  • Prenatal exposure of a child to harm due to the mother's use of an illegal drug or other substance.
  • Manufacture of methamphetamine in the presence of a child.
  • Selling, distributing, or giving illegal drugs or alcohol to a child.
  • Use of a controlled substance by a caregiver that impairs the caregiver's ability to adequately care for the child.


According to the Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, Children's Bureau: 


  • One-third to two-thirds of child maltreatment cases involve substance use to some degree. 

  • ​In one study, children whose parents abuse alcohol and other drugs were three times more likely to be abused and more than four times more likely to be neglected than children from non-abusing families. 

  • As many as two-thirds of the people in treatment for drug abuse reported being abused or neglected as children.
  • More than a third of adolescents with a report of abuse or neglect will have a substance use disorder before their 18th birthday, three times as likely as those without a report of abuse or neglect.​

  • A retrospective study of maltreatment experience in Chicago found children whose parents abused alcohol and other drugs were more than four times likelier to be neglected than children of parents who were not substance abusers.

  • A Department of Health and Human Services study found all types of maltreatment, and particularly neglect, to be more likely in alcohol-abusing families than in non alcohol-abusing families.

  • Over the past decade, prenatal exposure of children to drugs and alcohol during their mother's pregnancy and its potentially negative, developmental consequences has been an issue of particular concern. The number of children born each year exposed to drugs or alcohol is estimated to be between 550,000 and 750,000. While this issue has received much attention, children who are exposed prenatally represent only a small proportion of children negatively affected by parental substance abuse.