Rethinking parenting interventions for drug-dependent mothers: from behavior management to fostering emotional bonds.
Mothers who are physically and/or psychologically dependent upon alcohol and illicit drugs are at risk for a wide range of parenting deficits beginning when their children are infants and continuing as their children move through school-age and adolescent years. Behavioral parent training programs for drug-dependent mothers have had limited success in improving parent-child relationships or children's psychological adjustment. One reason behavioral parenting programs may have had limited success is the lack of attention to the emotional quality of the parent-child relationship. Research on attachment suggests that the emotional quality of mother-child relationships is an important predictor of children's psychological development through school-age and adolescent years. In this paper, we present a rationale and approach for developing attachment-based parenting interventions for drug-dependent mothers and report preliminary data on the feasibility of offering an attachment-based parenting intervention in an outpatient drug treatment program for women.
Suchman
Nancy
N
Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, CT, USA. nancy.suchman@yale.edu
Mayes
Linda
L
Conti
Joanne
J
Slade
Arietta
A
Rounsaville
Bruce
B
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D004493:Education; D004644:Emotions; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D009769:Object Attachment; D010865:Pilot Projects; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*
D013287:Illicit Drugs