This longitudinal study aimed to investigate the role of maternal cognitive functioning and psychopathology in parent-child relationship quality during residential treatment for mothers with Substance Use Disorder (SUD), in order to identify factors that may enhance or limit intervention effects.

We assessed cognitive functioning (Esame Neuropsicologico Breve-2 [ENB-2]) and psychopathology (Symptom Checklist-90 Revised [SCL-90-R]) in 60 mothers diagnosed with SUD (Mage = 30.13 yrs; SD = 6.79) at treatment admission. Parent-child relationship quality was measured during free-play interactions using the Emotional Availability Scales every three months from admission (Child Mage = 17.17m; SD = 23.60) to the 15th month of the residential treatment.

A main effect of maternal psychopathology and an interaction effect of time and cognitive functioning were found. More maternal psychopathology predicted lower mother-child relationship quality. Mothers with higher cognitive functioning presented a better treatment trajectory, with an increase in mother-child relationship quality, whereas mothers with lower cognitive functioning showed a decrease in relationship quality after initial improvement.

These findings suggest that maternal psychopathology and cognitive functioning may influence the treatment of parent-child relationships in the context of SUD, although causality is not yet established. Implications for assessment and intervention are discussed.

Fathers have been an important source of child endurance and prosperity since the dawn of civilization, promoting adaptation to social rules, defining cultural meaning systems, teaching daily living skills, and providing the material background against which children developed; still, the recent reformulation in the role of the father requires theory-building. Paternal caregiving is rare in mammals, occurring in 3–5% of species, expresses in multiple formats, and involves flexible neurobiological accommodations to ecological conditions and active caregiving. Here, we discuss father contribution to resilience across development. Our model proposes three tenets of resilience – plasticity, sociality, and meaning – and discussion focuses on father-specific contributions to each tenet at different developmental stages; newborn, infant, preschooler, child, and adolescent. Father’s style of high arousal, energetic physicality, guided participation in daily skills, joint adventure, and conflict resolution promotes children’s flexible approach and social competence within intimate bonds and social groups. By expanding children’s interests, sharpening cognitions, tuning affect regulation, encouraging exploration, and accompanying the search for identity, fathers support the sense of meaning, enhancing the human-specific dimension of resilience. We end by highlighting pitfalls to paternal contribution, including absence, abuse, rigidity, expectations, and gender typing, and the need to formulate novel theories to accommodate the “involved dad.”

The current study examined the predictors of parent-child relationship quality and developmental change in a sample of children adopted into the U.K. following severe early privation, and in a comparison sample of nondeprived, within-country adoptees. One hundred and fifty-eight children adopted from Romania and 52 U.K. adoptees were assessed at age 6 years; longitudinal data (age 4 and 6 years) were available on the 110 Romanian adoptees placed into U.K. homes before 24 months of age and all U.K. adoptees. Ratings of parent-child positivity and negativity during a semistructured interaction task were obtained from coders who were blind to the child's background. Results indicated that adoptive parent-child relationship quality was related to duration of deprivation and that cognitive/developmental delay mediated this association. The magnitude of this effect was modest and diminished over time. Longitudinal analyses revealed that positive change in parent-child relationship quality was most marked among children who exhibited cognitive catch-up between assessments. The direction of effects appeared to be primarily child to parent. The findings underscore the need for further research on the long-term impact of early experiences on psychosocial development.