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. 2007 Winter;19(1):205-25.
doi: 10.1017/S0954579407070113.

Maternal drug abuse versus maternal depression: vulnerability and resilience among school-age and adolescent offspring

Suniya S Luthar  1 , Chris C Sexton
Affiliations

Maternal drug abuse versus maternal depression: vulnerability and resilience among school-age and adolescent offspring

Suniya S Luthar et al. Dev Psychopathol. 2007 Winter.

Abstract

In this study of 360 low-income mother-child dyads, our primary goal was to disentangle risks linked with commonly co-occurring maternal diagnoses: substance abuse and affective/anxiety disorders. Variable- and person-based analyses suggest that, at least through children's early adolescence, maternal drug use is no more inimical for them than is maternal depression. A second goal was to illuminate vulnerability and protective processes linked with mothers' everyday functioning, and results showed that negative parenting behaviors were linked with multiple adverse child outcomes. Conversely, the other parenting dimensions showed more domain specificity; parenting stress was linked with children's lifetime diagnoses, and limit setting and closeness with children's externalizing problems and everyday competence, respectively. Results are discussed in terms of implications for resilience theory, interventions, and social policy.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The percentage of children showing positive adaptation across multiple domains, by mothers’ psychiatric diagnoses of drug abuse and affective/anxiety disorders.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The associations of maternal psychiatric contrasts and vulnerability and protective indices with child adjustment outcomes. Lines indicate average symptom levels according to clinically established norms (T score = 50); SD = 10.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The associations of maternal psychiatric contrasts and vulnerability and protective indices with child adjustment outcomes. Lines indicate average symptom levels according to clinically established norms (T score = 50); SD = 10.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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