Caregiver Substance Use and Child Trauma: Implications for Social Work Research and Practice

Research has consistently shown that there is a link between caregiver substance use and child maltreatment, but less attention has been given to child trauma exposure. The co-occurrence of caregiver substance misuse and child trauma exposure is a prevailing problem that has confounded social work prevention, protection, and treatment efforts with both children and adults for years. However, there has been minimal empirical and clinical literature focusing on child trauma as an outcome of caregiver substance use. This work is designed to be the catalyst for sustained intellectual inquiry about how caregiver substance use, child maltreatment, and violence exposure can be understood in theory and practice. To this end, the research presented in this book highlights the state of the science, the impact of the phenomenon, and the policy and practice questions that must be addressed. Implications for social work practice are highlighted in order to attenuate these deleterious and pervasive problems in the future.

This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions.

Dr. Michele Staton-Tindall, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the University of Kentucky, USA, at the College of Social Work and a Faculty Associate of the UK Center on Trauma and Children and the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research. Her research interests include evidence-based substance abuse treatment, service utilization, and rural populations.

Ginny Sprang, Ph.D., is a Professor in the College of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Executive Director of the University of Kentucky Center on Trauma and Children, USA. Dr. Sprang has published extensively in leading journals focusing on violence, maltreatment, and traumatic stress in families, children and professionals.

Shulamith Lala A. Straussner, DSW., is Professor at the New York University Silver School of Social Work and Director of the Post-Master’s Certificate Program in Clinical Approaches　to Addiction . She is also Editor of the Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions.