“In these bleak days”: Parent methamphetamine abuse and child welfare in the rural Midwest

This report describes the impact of parent methamphetamine abuse on the development and well-being of school-aged children, and considers implications for culturally appropriate child welfare services. Thirty-five adult informants from several, adjacent rural Midwestern counties in the United States...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Children and youth services review 2005-08, Vol.27 (8), p.949-971
Main Authors: Haight, Wendy, Jacobsen, Teresa, Black, James, Kingery, Linda, Sheridan, Kathryn, Mulder, Cray
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Child Development
Child welfare
Child Welfare Services
Drug abuse
Family Life
Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine abuse
Midwestern States
Parental Influence
Parents
Risk factors
Rural Areas
Rural Midwest
Substance Abuse
USA
Well Being
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Summary:This report describes the impact of parent methamphetamine abuse on the development and well-being of school-aged children, and considers implications for culturally appropriate child welfare services. Thirty-five adult informants from several, adjacent rural Midwestern counties in the United States were interviewed as part of a larger ethnographic study. These child welfare workers, other community professionals (educators, counselors, law enforcement personnel, and substance abuse treatment providers), and foster caregivers described their experiences with families involved with methamphetamine. Overall, informants described that children are brought by their methamphetamine-abusing parents into a rural drug culture characterized by distinct, antisocial beliefs and practices. Children's experience of this culture includes environmental danger, chaos, neglect, abuse, loss, and isolation. Informants believed that children develop antisocial beliefs and practices such as lying, stealing, drug use, and violence through direct teaching by their parents and, indirectly, through observing parents' own antisocial behavior. Informants described children as displaying psychological, social, and educational disturbances. They also described individual variation in functioning across children that they attributed, in part, to individual (e.g., temperament, intelligence), familial (e.g., extended family), and community (e.g., school) characteristics. Informants noted a need for effective child mental health services in the area, and for ensuring a positive environment for children's future development through education of the children, foster parents and other community members.
ISSN:0190-7409
1873-7765
DOI:10.1016/j.childyouth.2004.12.025