The Development of Children of Drug Addicts

Abstract

The present study compared 70 methadone-maintained mothers (MM) and their 70 preschool-age children to a matched control group of 70 non-drug-addicted mothers (NDA) and their 70 preschool-age children on mothers' personalities, intelligence levels, and parenting attitudes and behavior; and on children's behavior and intelligence and developmental levels. Findings showed that in comparison to the control group, MM mothers performed less adaptively on measures of intelligence, personality, and parenting behavior. Their scores on the parenting attitude measures reflected authoritarian childrearing beliefs. Children of MM mothers performed more poorly than children of NDA mothers on measures of intelligence and socially adaptive behavior. In a comparison of children of MM mothers who experienced withdrawal from drugs at birth to children of MM mothers who were not born addicted to drugs, results revealed a tendency for withdrawal children to have developmental delays, lower IQ scores, and lower heights and weights.