Robison 1

Kaitlyn Robison

English 111

Dr. Downes

21 October 2021

Research Question: Does parental substance abuse in America have an effect on the number of

children in welfare services?

Working Thesis: Parental substance abuse raises the number of children in child welfare services

in America.

Annotated Bibliography

National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare. “Child Welfare and Alcohol and Drug

Use Statistics.” Child Welfare and Alcohol and Drug Use Statistics | National Center on

Substance Abuse and Child Welfare (NCSACW), ncsacw.samhsa.gov/research/child-

welfare-and-treatment-statistics.aspx.

In the article, “Child Welfare and Alcohol and Drug Use Statistics”, the National Center

on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare states, in the form of a graph, the prevalence of parental

substance abuse as an identified condition for child removal in the United States. This graph

contains statistical data collected from 2000 to 2019. The percentages start at 18.5 in 2000 then

continuously increase every year except two, and in those years the percentage only went down

by 0.5% and 0.1%. More specifically the percentages in the graph are taken out of the total

number of children in out-of-home care at a point in that year.

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I plan to use this non-scholarly article in my upcoming Paper 2 to show the increase of

percentages of parental substance abuse as a cause of child removal through the years.

Specifically, the graph will illuminate how big of an issue parental substance abuse is when

related directly to the wellbeing of a child. This issue has become more and more prominent, and

it has never had a substantial decrease in percentage. The graph I am using in the article is a

credible graph because it has accurate axis labels, it tells you what the data is, and it tells you

what the data in the graph is taken from. The data in the chart is taken from all children in out of

home care at a given point in the fiscal year of each year.

Fitzgerald, Mark, and et al. “An Exploratory Study of Drug-Exposed Infants: Case

Substantiation and Subsequent Child Maltreatment.” Child Welfare, January 1, 2007,

Vol. 86 num 3, pp. 33-50. EBSCOhost. search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ771070&site=eds-live&scope=site

In the article, “An Exploratory Study of Drug-Exposed Infants: Case Substantiation and

Subsequent Child Maltreatment”, An-Pyng Sun, Margaret P. Freese, and Mark Fitzgerald

discuss the effects of motherly substance use and abuse on children in infantry and when young.

Maltreatment of drug exposed children can be connected to prior alcohol abuse from the mother

and the mother’s age. The most common drug infants are exposed to through their mothers to are

amphetamines/methamphetamine 38.5% of the time, cocaine 33.5%, polydrug 9.6%, marijuana

9%, heroin/narcotics 2.2%, PCP 1.5%, alcohol 0.4%, and phenobarbital 0.2%. There is about 5%

of data missing from this sample due to the type of sample taken. This data was taken from 457

cases of alleged drug exposed infants, between the months of January 1998 to October 2001, and

it was collected by a CPS computerized system.

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I will use this source to support my research question because it shows how long parental

substance abuse has been affecting children. Although this article contains older information, it

can still be viable to my argument because it provides information and statistics on the effects of

motherly substance abuse on young children and unborn children in their mother’s womb.

Children whose mothers abuse substance can end up with severe side effects and are even more

likely to develop an addiction of their own compared to a child without a mother with a

substance abuse disorder.

Lander, Laura, and et al. “The Impact of Substance Use Disorders on Families and Children:

From Theory to Practice.” Social work in public health vol. 28,3-4 (2013): pp. 194-205.

EBSCOhost. dx.doi.org/10.1080%2F19371918.2013.759005

In this article, “The Impact of Substance use Disorders on Families and Children: From

Theory to Practice”, Laura Lander, Janie Howsare, and Marilyn Byrne state that substance use

disorders affect entire families including children. Of children under age 18, over eight million

children live with at least 1 adult who has a SUD. Children who experience this can also develop

a SUD themselves or develop other emotional or behavioral issues. Some side effects seen in

children who experienced a parent with substance abuse include having a hard time establishing

a healthy trust relationship, not being able to control one’s emotions, or even birth defects if the

mother abused substances while pregnant with the child. Children who have a parent with a SUD

are three times more likely to get sexually or physically abused by their parent. General theory

systems stemmed from family systems which says a family is a unit that functions together.

This source is helpful in supporting my research question because it gives evidence that

children exposed to a parental substance use disorder are more likely to have a difficult time at

succeeding in life. Children who are placed in child welfare programs have a more difficult time
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developing social, emotional, and awareness skills. Because children in welfare programs

struggle with these basic functions it makes it harder for them to get out of the welfare system,

creating an influx of children in welfare. This has a great effect on the child’s life.

Opmeer-Leloux, Harmke, and et al. “Characteristics of Children in Foster Care, Family-Style

Group Care, and Residential Care: A Scoping Review.” Journal of Child and Family

Studies, Vol. 25 num 8, August 1, 2016, EBSCOhost. pg. 2358-2371.

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=i3h&AN=116622707&site=ehost-

live&scope=site

In the article, “Characteristics of Children in Foster Care, Family-Style Group Care, and

Residential Care: A Scoping Review”, Harmke Leloux-Opmeer, Chris Kuiper, Hanna Swaab,

and Evert Scholte state regular children or more unfortunate children who are put into one of the

three types of out of home care can suffer severe issues. The three types of out of home care are

foster care, family-style group care, and residential care. Each has their own effect on children.

All three types have the same correlation when it comes to parental substance abuse, in at least

one in five parents have an issue with drugs or alcohol. In residential care the problem of

parental substance abuse can be seen as more severe than in the other two types of out of home

care.

This scholarly article helps support my research question by defining the types of out of

home care a child can receive from child welfare. The knowledge of the types of out of home

care is important for my research question. I can relate it to the percentage of children who get

put into these types of care by cause of parental substance abuse. This article is relatively new,

being published in 2016 so the information is reliable.

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Saldana, Lisa. “Meeting the Needs of Families Involved in the Child Welfare System for

Parental Substance Abuse: Outcomes From an Effectiveness Trial of the Families

Actively Improving Relationships Program.” Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 12, July 2,

2021, EBSCOhost. pg. 1-16. search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=edsdoj&AN=edsdoj.0772334b6f534bdda363972f0f46a46d&site=eds-

live&scope=site

In the article, “Meeting the Needs of Families Involved in the Child Welfare System for

Parental Substance Abuse: Outcomes From an Effectiveness Trial of the Families Actively

Improving Relationships Program”, Lisa Saldana, Jason E. Chapman, Mark Campbell, Zoe

Alley, Holle Schaper, and Courtenay Padgett discuss treatment options for parents who need

assistance parenting their child, whether it is substance treatment, mental health treatment, parent

management, or resource building. This can also be applied to the children of the parents who

need substance abuse treatment. Children of parents with substance abuse problems can develop

very serious issues with mental, emotional, and social development.

This research article is very recent. It was published in 2021, making the source valid and

reliable, along with having non-biased authors. This source focuses on families as a whole and

then the affects the family with a substance abuse disorder will have on the children of the

family. The research article talks a lot about the various ways parents and families can receive

help for substance abuse. They can try counseling, therapy, rehabilitation, or if nothing else

works it is a possibility, they could be sent to prison for drug use. In that scenario the children in

the family would be taken by child services and be placed in an out of home living situation.

This will be useful in my Paper 2 because the more parents who struggle with abuse, the more
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likely the parents are to be taken away from the child. And the child would be up into the welfare

system.

Seay, Kristen. “How Many Families in Child Welfare Services Are Affected by Parental

Substance Use Disorders? A Common Question that Remains Unanswered.” Child

Welfare, May 1, 2015, Vol. 94 num 4, EBSCOhost. pp. 19-51.

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=i3h&AN=110870812&site=ehost-

live&scope=site

In the article, “How Many Families in Child Welfare Services Are Affected by Parental

Substance Use Disorders? A Common Question that Remains Unanswered”, Kristen Seay argues

the prevalence rate of parental substance use in child welfare varies depending on the study done.

There are different categories used to show different prevalence rates for different situations. The

categories include prevalence rates of parental substance use in child welfare, estimates by state,

rates by type of child welfare involvement, and rates by method of data collection. For each

category eleven studies’ findings are represented in charts.

This source will be helpful to me in the next assignment because it shows the range of

different studies and how some studies should not be relied on. Some of the studies analyzed in

this article are from the 1980’s and that data is now nearing thirty years old. I think this source

does a good job of showing the variety of good and bad sources used for every category studied.

I can use the reliable studies from this article to help me support my research question in Paper 2.

They will support my research question by backing it up with statistical research findings.