Child Substance Abuse

Drug Abuse: Child Effects
Parents do not conceive a baby or in some cases several babies with the intentions of neglecting and/or abusing them physically and/or emotionally. Some conceive with the hopes of a lifestyle change, and others conceive surprisingly unknowingly. Depending on their life circumstance they are overwhelmed with joy or overtaken with grief. But all are concerned with the wellbeing of their child or children because of the known and unknown effects the child may endure during conception as it can relate to their genetic inheritance or their substance abuse before and during pregnancy. “It has been estimated that approximately 225,000 infants are prenatally exposed to their mothers’ use of illicit substances each year, and
exposure to these substances is often the first point in which children experience the negative effects of parental substance abuse. (Calhoun, Conner, Miller, and Messina, 2015, pp. 16). The amount, type, and constant use of the drug of choice can play a major role in the effect the drug abuse can have on an unborn baby during a mothers’ pregnancy. The differences in the drugs can pose minor to severe effects that range from being visually noticeable immediately after birth to being undetected until later on in the child’s life. Calhoun et al. (2015) compare and contrast some of the drug effects as, “Children exposed to methamphetamine use have been found to be at increased risk of being small for their gestational age and exhibit low arousal, poor quality of movement, and increased physiological stress.
In contrast, prenatal opioid use has been shown to lead to neonatal abstinence syndrome, in which infants experience opioid withdrawal symptoms after birth as a result of no longer being exposed to the substance. Problems resulting from prenatal exposure to other drugs may not manifest themselves until later in the child’s development. For example, prenatal cocaine exposure has been associated with poor language development, emotional problems (e.g., social withdrawal, anxiety, and depression), and negative behavioral manifestations (e.g., delinquency, aggressiveness, and pre-teen substance abuse).” (Calhoun, Conner, Miller, and Messina, 2015, pp. 16). There is a difference in the effect parental drug abuse can have on a child who is conceived and born with the effects of drug abuse and a child who was not affected birth wise but is introduced to parental drug abuse years after birth. A child born with before, during, and after, birth parental drug abuse is subject to not only genetic issues but they may also be subjected to it after their care in the hospital. For the most part, most unborn babies who are known to be have been exposed to drug abuse and their parents show no signs of stopping their drug abuse the child can be removed from the parent’s custody
and placed in another home.
Drug Abuse: In the Home
In a home where parents abuse drugs a child is at a greater risk of being exposed to poor parenting abilities.
The incompetence of drug abuse parents to care for a child physical and emotional needs can cause the child to be removed from the home and placed in the welfare system. The involvement with the welfare system can lead to major issues for children because the child has to deal with a mixture of emotions at on time. They have the emotions of being separated from their parents, being placed in a new home, and being questioned by people they have never seen before. They also have to deal to emotions of feeling like they are betraying their parents and what they will endure they parents found out. These emotion can cause children to withhold information form the people assigned to help them. According to Akin, Brook, and Lloyd (2015) “Families who become involved with the child welfare system because of child maltreatment face multiple and complex needs that must be addressed prior to successful reunification. Children who experience maltreatment frequently enter the child welfare system with distinct issues, including serious emotional disturbance (SED). SED is defined by federal regulations as a diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder of sufficient duration to meet diagnostic criteria specified in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual that results in functional impairment that substantially interferes with family, school, or community activities.” (p. 72). A
long recovery process begins for the child once the welfare system gets involved. The child is removed from the home and can be placed with responsible relatives while the welfare system further investigates the case. If a responsible relative cannot be located the child is placed in a foster home. The child can be with relatives or in the foster home until one or two things take place, their parents can prove they are responsible for caring for the child or they cannot get themselves together and the child remains in foster care. Once in the child welfare system, research finds that parental substance abuse contributes to worse experiences and outcomes. Children with parental substance abuse are more likely to enter foster care and spend more days in out-of-home placement and are less likely to reunify. Of children who do return home after foster care, those with parental substance abuse are more likely to re-enter foster care. (Akin, Brook, & Lloyd, 2015).