‘Breaking the Cycle’ of maternal substance use through relationships: a comparison of integrated approaches

Abstract

Background: To compare a novel relationship-focused intervention (RFI) for maternal substance use, offered through ‘Breaking the Cycle (BTC)’, to standard integrated treatment (SIT). Although SIT focuses on the mother–child relationship tangentially by providing basic parenting information, RFI involves a central focus on promoting healthy maternal relationships with a particular emphasis on fostering mother–child interactions.

Method: Measures in the domains of addiction, relationship capacity, and mental health were administered to 65 women receiving RFI and 25 receiving SIT, at intake (T1) and one year later (T2).

Results: While both groups of mothers improved in addiction severity, women receiving RFI also improved in mental health functioning and relationship capacity. Improvements in relationship capacity predicted addiction severity, over and above improvements in abstinence self-efficacy, social support, and mental health.

Conclusions: Findings highlight the importance of a relationship-focus in assisting mothers to make broad changes that support addiction recovery. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Keywords:

• Mothers
• addiction
• relationship-focused intervention
• relationship capacity
• attachment security
• young children

Acknowledgements

We thank all of women and children who graciously provided us with their time and personal information to make this research possible. We extend special thanks to Jessica Cleeve for her assistance on previous versions of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Funding information

Funding for this research was provided by the Canadian Institute of Health Research – Institute of Gender and Health (Grant 77757).