The Effect of Maternal Hazardous Alcohol Use on Longitudinal Externalizing Problems Among Female Children Involved with the Child Welfare System

Background: Parental hazardous alcohol use is associated with a number of adverse outcomes for children in the child welfare system, including increased risk for subsequent behavioral problems. Specifically, among foster care involved children, maternal hazardous alcohol use has been shown to have a negative impact on their daughters’ psychological wellbeing as children approach adolescence. Children involved with the child welfare system are at an increased risk for having a parent with an alcohol use disorder, as parental alcohol misuse is a factor in 50-80% of child welfare cases. Furthermore, externalizing behavioral problems among children result in both short-term and long-term consequences, including involvement with the juvenile justice system, poor academic performance, and subsequent risk for substance use disorders.  In an effort to examine the longitudinal effects of maternal hazardous alcohol use and child behavioral health, this study uses longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of families involved with the child welfare system to explore the effect of maternal hazardous alcohol use on female children’s externalizing behavioral problems between the ages of 8 to 16.

Methods: Data from Waves 1- 4 of the Longitudinal Studies on Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGCAN) from five sites across the United States was examined. Participants included in this study were female children whose mother reported consuming any alcohol in the past year (N = 174). Information on maternal hazardous alcohol use assessed by the CAGE (a previously validated measure of hazardous alcohol use), which was dichotomized. CAGE scores were collected at baseline. Children’s externalizing behavioral problems were assessed at each subsequent wave utilizing the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Repeated measures ANOVA examined trajectories of CBCL scores over time, and whether maternal hazardous alcohol use was associated with any differences in externalizing CBCL scores.

Results: Approximately 24% of LONGSCAN participants reported a mother engaged in hazardous alcohol use. Across all waves, the average CBCL externalizing score was 11.95. Bivariate results showed that daughters who had a mother engaged in hazardous alcohol use showed significant differences in CBCL scores at baseline. Our multivariate model showed that in general, externalizing CBCL scores decreased over time significantly for the entire sample. However, daughters of mothers with hazardous alcohol use showed significantly higher externalizing CBCL scores at both model intercept and over time.

Conclusions and Implications: Understanding the effects of maternal alcohol misuse on daughters can assist social work practitioners in identifying specific time points where tailored interventions can be developed to reduce the risk for problems associated with higher externalizing behavioral problems among female children. These time-specific interventions may be beneficial to the field of child welfare as they may assist in the time-limited effort to address parental substance use as well as decreasing childhood vulnerability and improving healthy family functioning. Future research in this area should examine how child behavioral problems among daughters with mothers engaged in hazardous alcohol use translate to other areas associated with vulnerability.