Parental dependence on illicit drugs is a growing
concern across a number of disciplines. It has implications that
are at once medical, political, social, and
psychological. In recent years, researchers from the
U.S.A. (Austin & Prendergast, 1991; Deren, 1986;
Johnson, 1991) and the U.K. (Burns, O'Driscoll, &
Wason, 1996) have called for greater attention to be paid
to social and psychological, rather than solely physical,
effects of parental drug use on children. In Ireland,
against the backdrop of an intractable and escalating
intravenous opiate problem, the issue of how children are
affected by parental drug dependence is emerging as a
new social and clinical concern. A recent government
report, for example, recognises that children of drug users
may be in need of clinical interventions and special care
arrangements (Rabitte, 1996). But what form should
such services take? Are these children at greater risk than
other children from similar socioeconomic backgrounds
for experiencing social and psychological problems? Is
the nurturing environment provided to children whose
parents are dependent on illicit drugs less adequate than
that provided to children whose parents do not use
drugs? At present research does not provide conclusive
answers to these questions. Research that focuses on the
effects of postnatal parental drug use on children's social
and psychological well-being is strikingly scarce, with the
majority of child-oriented research concentrating instead
on the effects of prenatal exposure to drugs. The small
amount of research that has been conducted on the
caregiving environments of children of drug users has
produced largely inconclusive findings.
The aims of the present paper are to review and analyse
existing research on the social environments provided to
children of drug users, and on the developmental outcomes for this
group. A further aim is to provide pointers
to gaps and shortcomings that need to be addressed in
future research. The focus is on parental addiction to
“hard drugs”, namely opiates (primarily heroin and
methadone) and cocaine. Studies dealing exclusively with
the impact on children of prenatal exposure to drugs and
of parental alcohol use are excluded, as are studies of a
primary addiction to amphetamines and other illicit
substances, although it is recognised that these are
frequently used in addition to opiates and cocaine.