Neighborhood influences and child development: A prospective study of substance abusers' offspring

Abstract

In this 2-year prospective study, psychopathology and competence among drug abusers' offspring were examined in relation to characteristics of their neighborhoods. The sample consisted of 77 children of cocaine and opioid addicts with a mean age of 12.3 years at baseline and 14.2 years at follow-up. Outcomes examined included psychiatric diagnoses, dimensional symptom indices, and aspects of everyday behavioral competence. Links involving neighborhood variables varied by gender, wherein boys reflected greater deterioration than girls when neighborhoods had high crime rates and high proportions of low-income households. Conversely, girls appeared to benefit more than boys from the presence of professional adults in the community. Overall, neighborhood indicators accounted for more variability in changes in child adjustment over time than did indices of maternal psychopathology. Findings are discussed in terms of developmental changes in the salience of exosystemic and familial forces, and implications for interventions are outlined.

Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status Effects on Adolescent Alcohol Outcomes Using Growth Models: Exploring the Role of Parental Alcoholism

“…Findings from observational prospective studies of neighborhood effects mirror the lack of consensus found in cross-sectional designs: Hoffman (2002) found that neighborhood poverty indicators predicted adolescent drug use, whereas Luthar and Cushing (1999) found that indicators of neighborhood affl uence predicted adolescent drug use in a sample of children of cocaine and opioid addicts. Compounding this issue of lack of consensus fi ndings, additional methodological weaknesses in this literature include confounds attributable to family mobility and a failure to include relevant family-level variables associated with neighborhood residence into their models, making it diffi cult to identify the most relevant neighborhood-level infl uences.…”

Parent, Family, and Neighborhood Effects on the Development of Child Substance Use and Other Psychopathology From Preschool to the Start of Adulthood

“…However, neighborhood effects in these studies are evident only when a number of relevant confounding variables, including family socioeconomic status, parental psychopathology, and family mobility, are controlled. Luthar and Cushing (1999) studied the effects of neighborhood socioeconomic status (indicated by census data) on internalizing/externalizing behaviors and substance use among the offspring (ages 7-17) of patients who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition, Revised (DSM-III-R; American Psychiatric Association, 1987), criteria for cocaine or opioid dependence. Neighborhood effects were shown only for drug use in their 2-year-long study.…”

Risk factors for the development of emotional and behavioural problems in children born to drug-dependent mothers

“…There is clear evidence that the offspring of drug-dependent mothers is at a heightened risk of developing various sorts of mental disorders and poor psychosocial functioning [4,7,9,12,16,17,20,22,25,27,28].…”

“…These risks include low socio-economic status and limited social support [14,16], comorbid mental disorder and functioning of the mother [1,13,16,20], physical abuse [1,13,16,20], and residential placement or foster care [10].…”