Patterns of emotional availability, psychopathology, and sociodemographic risk factors among mothers with substance use disorders and their children

Parental substance use disorder (SUD) constitutes a major public health problem and a well-known risk condition for child development, largely due to exposure to dysfunctional caregiving practices, ranging from less-than-optimal maternal sensitivity to severe forms of abuse or neglect. However, most research focused on specific parenting features or on maternal and child behaviors separately, which may not be representative of the quality of their relationship as a whole. The aim of this study was to identify patterns of dyadic emotional availability and their association with different risk factors in the context of maternal SUD. The study involved 77 mothers with SUD (Mage = 28.55 years, SD = 6.41) and their children (47% male, Mage = 12.47 months, SD = 15.04) receiving residential intervention services. At the time of admission, sociodemographic risk factors and maternal psychopathology were assessed through, respectively, an ad-hoc interview and the Symptom Checklist 90–Revised. Mother–child interactions were rated during free-play using the Emotional Availability Scales. Cluster analysis was used to identify potentially different patterns of interactions. Four patterns were identified: “low-functioning dyads,” “inconsistent dyads,” “inconsistent mother with low functioning child,” and “high functioning dyads,” where functioning refers to the level of interactive functioning, that is, the quality of interactive behaviors and the degree of emotional availability. These patterns presented differences with respect to some individual (children’s age), clinical (prenatal drug exposure) and psychopathological (depression) variables. Findings highlight the need for targeted intervention programs aimed at improving the quality of parenting behaviors and childhood development trajectories.