Need Help? Contact us via phone or e-mail. Your Feedback
login / join us
×
login
e-mail:
password:

News

Research and analysis: Examination of the links between parental conflict and substance misuse and the impacts on children’s outcomes

Published 6 April 2021

Executive Summary

This report is a literature review examining the links between parental conflict and substance misuse and the impacts on children’s outcomes. Three sections investigate:

  1. The impact of parental conflict and substance misuse on children
  2. Interventions for addressing parental substance misuse and conflict and their relative effectiveness
  3. What characteristics of effective practice can be identified across interventions?

In addition, the review identifies where gaps exist in the evidence base and where these may need to be supplemented for the UK context.

Findings

Understanding the impact of parental conflict and substance misuse on children

The review finds that there is consistent evidence of an association between substance misuse and parental conflict. Some studies point to this association being causal. Most longitudinal studies support the view that substance misuse increases the incidence of parental conflict though there are other studies that highlight how parental conflict can lead to substance misuse. In all cases there is less evidence regarding the mechanism by which one leads to the other and how it interacts with other stressors. The relationship is likely to be complex.

The nature of the negative outcomes for children in families experiencing both substance misuse and parental conflict appears to be the same as for those in families experiencing either substance misuse or parental conflict alone, i.e. mainly externalising or internalising behaviours. There is, however, consistent evidence that children affected by both parental substance misuse and conflict are more at risk of presenting these behaviours. A number of other stressors (including housing, financial instability, crime, schooling or parental mental health) can act cumulatively to increase a child’s risk of negative outcomes.

Interventions addressing parental substance misuse and conflict and their relative effectiveness

The review identified few interventions explicitly aimed at tackling both substance misuse and parental conflict.

There is consistent evidence that behavioural couple’s therapy (BCT) results in a greater and longer-lasting reduction in substance use than individual behavioural therapy, and also improves relationship satisfaction and functioning in intact couples. There is also some evidence that BCT can improve outcomes for the couple’s children.

There is some evidence that the involvement of the whole family in substance misuse treatment can increase treatment engagement rates and lead to greater reductions in substance misuse than treatment delivered to the individual alone. There is more mixed evidence for the effectiveness of whole-family interventions on family functioning and there remains a lack of evidence regarding what form of family involvement is most effective.

The review identified that interventions often helped to develop the following set of skills in parents and children:

  • helping parents to take responsibility for their actions and to understand the impact of their actions on their families
  • improving communication between a couple and within the family as a whole
  • skills training focused on emotional coping strategies, both to manage triggers to substance use and to improve parenting practices and conflict management

The development of these skills was shown by studies to help improve outcomes relating to substance use, parental conflict, parenting practices and child development simultaneously.

Characteristics of effective practice

While successful interventions take many forms, and there are no definitive rules for ‘what works’, this review highlighted a number of considerations and common themes relating to design and delivery which influence the effectiveness of interventions. Principal themes drawn out in this review were: timing and sequencing, engagement and retention, socio-demographic characteristics of the target group, intensity and length of intervention, format of intervention, techniques employed and multi-agency working.

Acknowledgements

This research was commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions. 

Author

Caitlin Hogan-Lloyd

Colin Horswell

Suzie Langdon-Shreeve


next news ›››