A typology of families with parental alcohol or drug abuse

Abstract

Objectives To estimate the prevalence of parental alcohol abuse (PAA) or parental drug abuse (PDA), to compare families with PAA/PDA to non-PAA/PDA families, and to identify different types of families with PAA/PDA in terms of mental disorders in parents, family separation, financial difficulties and educational level. Methods Register-based data from a complete birth cohort of children born in 1991 in Finland (N = 62,751), and their biological parents. Data were derived from Finnish administrative registers from 1991 to 2009. Latent class analysis was used to construct typology of families with PAA/PDA. Results 10.5% of families were affected by PAA or PDA before the children’s 18th birthday. Of these families, five family types were identified. The most common type was characterised by father’s alcohol abuse but had no other detectable problems besides parental separation. The second type was a family where the father had a drinking or drug problem, had financial difficulties and had moved away from the family’s home. The two less common family types were characterised by the mother’s drinking or drug abuse and mental disorders. The mothers of these family types were rather commonly living with their children. In the fifth family type, child typically did not live with either of the parents, both parents had alcohol/drug abuse and accumulated problems. Conclusions Early prevention and treatment are needed to avoid the accumulation of parental problems in PAA/PDA families. As both biological parents rather rarely were substance abusers, the parental role of the non-substance abusing parent should be supported and strengthened.

Keywords:

• Parental alcohol abuse
• parental drug abuse
• children
• family separation
• latent class analysis
• register-based studies

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank statistical researcher Heli Tapanainen from National Institute for Health and Welfare for consultation on the LCA.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interests. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

This study is funded by the Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies, EU (Alice Rap: Addictions and Lifestyles in Contemporary Europe. Reframing Addictions Project (no. 266813)), National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and the Academy of Finland (no. 259289).

Notes

¹ICD-10 codes for alcohol abuse: F10.1-F10.9, E24.4, E52, G31.2, G40.51, G62.1, G72.1, I42.6, K29.2, K70.0-K70.9, K85.2, K86.00-K86.01, K86.08, O35.4, R78.0, T51.0, Z71.4, Z72.1.

²ICD-10 codes for illicit drug abuse: F11-F16, F18-F19, B17.1, B18.2, R78.1-R78.4, T40.0-T40.3, T40.5-T40.9, Z71.5, Z72.2.

³ATC codes: N07BB (alcohol dependence), N07BC (opioid dependence).

⁴All permanent residents of Finland are covered under the Finnish National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme and are eligible for reimbursement of medical expenses. The Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela) reimburses for the cost of medicine that a doctor has prescribed for the treatment of an illness. A higher rate of reimbursement is available for certain medicines used in the treatment of severe, long-term diseases. The medical criteria required for entitlement to a special reimbursement are set out by Kela.