Differential responsiveness to a parenting intervention for mothers in substance abuse treatment.
Abstract
This study examines the relationship between levels of psychological distress in substance-dependent mothers and their differential response to a dyadic parent-child intervention. A sample of 66 mothers who were receiving treatment for substance abuse, as well as a simultaneous parenting intervention, were interviewed pre and post-treatment on measures of psychological distress, adult and child trauma history, parental reflective functioning, and child social-emotional development. Additionally, clinicians provided assessments of the parent-child relationships. As anticipated, trauma histories for mothers and children, children's social emotional development, and parental reflective functioning were associated with aspects of maternal psychological distress. Kruskal-Wallis and subsequent Wilcoxson signed rank tests revealed that women with highest levels of baseline psychological distress showed significant improvements in psychological functioning post-treatment while women with moderately elevated levels of psychological distress did not. Women who were most distressed at baseline showed increased levels of parental reflective functioning post-treatment while women with moderate and lower levels of baseline psychological distress showed improvements on clinician-rated assessments of parent-child relationships. Chi Square analyses showed that parents who endorsed the highest levels of distress at baseline reported that their children's risk status regarding social-emotional development decreased post-treatment. Despite similarities in substance dependence, mothers in this sample had different needs and outcomes in the context of this parenting intervention due to variation in mental health. Given this variation, parenting interventions for substance-dependent mothers need to account for the individual differences in levels of psychological distress.
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Strong parental reflective functioning is associated with more secure attachment relationships.
“Strong parental reflective functioning is associated with more secure attachment relationships, and is thus a target of many attachment-focused interventions for parents with and without SUDs (Pajulo et al., 2006; Paris et al., 2015; Sadler et al., 2013; Stover et al., 2017; Zayde et al., 2020)”
From Home‐based family recovery supports: Feasibility, acceptability, and adoption of training home visitors in “Mothering from the Inside Out” (2025) · cites this paper as Paris et al., 2015
Few of the EBPs potentially promising for mothers with SUDs have been successfully integrated into systems serving families with infants and young children.
“Of this handful of EBPs that are potentially promising for mothers with SUDs, few have been successfully integrated into systems serving families with infants and young children (Berlin et al., 2014; Paris et al., 2015; Suchman, DeCoste, et al., 2017)”
From Home‐based family recovery supports: Feasibility, acceptability, and adoption of training home visitors in “Mothering from the Inside Out” (2025) · cites this paper as Paris et al., 2015
In Paris et al. (2015), among substance-abusing mothers, PRFQ scores revealed a significant improvement only in mothers who had shown higher levels of psychological distress at the beginning of a brief dyadic parent-child intervention.
“On the contrary, in a sample of substance-abusing mothers, Paris et al. (2015) reported that PRFQ scores revealed a significant improvement only in mothers who had shown higher levels of psychological distress at the beginning of a brief dyadic parent-child intervention.”
From Mentalizing makes parenting work: a review about parental reflective functioning and clinical interventions to improve it (2017) · cites this paper as Paris et al., 2015
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- Authors
- Paris, R., Herriott, A., Holt, M., & Gould, K.
- Affiliations
- Boston University (US)
- Institute for Health and Recovery (US)
- Corresponding author
- Paris, Ruth
- Venue
- Child Abuse & Neglect
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-12
- Volume
- 50
- Pages
- 206-217
- ISSN
- 0145-2134 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2178373799
- Cited by
- 47
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 4
- FWCI
- 2.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Child Abuse & Neglect (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2U79SM059460-04)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Child Welfare and Adoption
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
- Keywords
- parenting support, maternal distress, parental reflective functioning, child social-emotional development, parent-child relationship, individual differences in treatment response, addiction treatment
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Child, Child Abuse, Developmental Disabilities, Female, Humans, Mother-Child Relations, Mothers, Parents, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Stress, Psychological, Parenting, Treatment Outcome, Substance-Related Disorders, Resilience, Psychological
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