Nancy M. Petry
Alcohol Research Center
Department of Psychiatry
University of Connecticut Medical School
petry@PSYCHIATRY.UCHC.EDU

Role theory is useful to study problems of substance abusers. Adult roles include raising families, being law-abiding citizens, and having gainful employment. Deviant behaviors are sanctioned by custody loss, legal repercussions and unemployment. Initiating treatment is one way to exit the deviant role of substance user. Because drug and alcohol use is highest during childbearing years, individuals initiating treatment are likely to be parents.  The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between custodial status and psychosocial problems among parents initiating treatment.  Participants were drawn from a retrospective analysis of 259 consecutive admissions of individuals initiating outpatient substance abuse treatment. Of the 85% (n = 219) who had at least one child, 93 (43%) were custodial and 126 were non-custodial parents. Participants completed the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) and Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI).  Demographic information was compared using Chi-square analysis for categorical data and independent t-tests for continuous data. Holding gender constant, and entering age as a covariate, MANCOVA was used to evaluate differences on the ASI. Parents were similar in terms of ethnicity, education, total number of children, and age when first child was born. On the average, custodial parents lived with two children. They tended to be female, younger and married, compared to non-custodial parents.  Custodial parents experienced more severe cocaine problems and more days of alcohol intoxication during the preceding month. Non-custodial parents reported more prior alcohol treatments and more episodes of delirium tremens. They demonstrated more overall psychological distress on the BSI with elevated scores on the Depression and Psychoticism subscales. Non-custodial parents had more employment problems and past legal difficulties. Policy implications include the need for non-criminalization of treatment-seeking parenting addicts and funded treatment facilities that accommodate children.  Implications for practice include importance of Supervised Visitation and vocational training programs for non-custodial parents.