Supporting Children and Kinship Caregivers in the Context of Substance Use Disorders

Overview: This presentation will discuss a mixed methods, community-based participatory study that explored the social processes of children and their kinship caregivers in families impacted by substance use disorders. The presenter will show that interventions need to be comprehensive to best support and address the rights of children and kinship caregivers.Proposal text: One in eight children grows up in a household with parental substance use disorders (Lipari & Van Horn, 2017). These children are often cared for by other adults because of the negative impact of substance use on the family. This presentation will provide an overview of a mixed methods, community-based participatory research study that explored the social processes of children and their sober kinship caregivers in families impacted by substance use disorders. The presenter will explore the social processes and needs in families affected by parental substance use and show that interventions need to be comprehensive to best support and address the rights of children and kinship caregivers.

The United States is experiencing an unprecedented epidemic of substance use disorders (SUD). In 2019, over twenty million people aged 12 or older and their families were affected by SUD, 71.1 percent with alcohol use disorder, 40.7 percent with an illicit drug use disorder, and 11.8 percent with both an alcohol and illicit drug use disorder. In addition, approximately 9.2 million adults with SUD had a co-occurring mental health disorder (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2020). Experts believe that the number of persons struggling with SUD increased significantly since the beginning of the COVID pandemic (Mota, 2020).

Given the prevalence of SUD, it is reasonable to expect that as many as 20 to 40 million family systems are influenced by SUD at any time. A coexisting challenge in these families is children need sober adult caregivers to adapt to the uncertainties of parental substance use; however, often sober caregivers also need support themselves to navigate and support the family system. Kinship caregiver is a term readily used to describe the adult caregiver in this situation and refers to one who provides “full-time care, nurturing, and protection of a child” and who is a relative, member of the child’s “tribe or clan, godparents, stepparents, or other adults who have a family relationship to a child” (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2022).

The purpose of the study was to explore the social processes of children and kinship caregivers in families affected by parental SUD. Kinship caregivers were sober adults, aged 18 and over, providing care for a child, aged 0 to 18 years, whose parent has a SUD. A community-based participatory research design and mixed methods approach was used. The resiliency model of family stress, adjustment, and adaptation and symbolic interactionism (McCubbin et al., 2001) was the theoretical framework used to guide the study and enhance its relevance for developing interventions that can support and address the human rights of families impacted by SUD.

The presenter will share the results of the mixed methods study and explore how results can be utilized to advance the rights and protective factors of children and families impacted by substance use disorders. Examining the social processes and challenges facing families shows interventions need to be comprehensive and community-wide to best support and address the rights of children and kinship caregivers affected by substance use disorders.