MULTIPLE JEOPARDY - RISK AND PROTECTIVE FACTORS AMONG ADDICTED MOTHERS OFFSPRING

Objectives of this study were to ascertain risk and protective factors in the adjustment of 78 school-age and teenage offspring of opioid-an d cocaine-abusing mothers. Using a multimethod, multiinformant approac h, child outcomes were operationalized via lifetime psychiatric diagno ses and everyday social competence (each based on both mother and chil d reports), and dimensional assessments of symptoms (mother report). R isk/protective factors examined included the child sociodemographic at tributes of gender, age, and ethnicity, aspects of maternal psychopath ology, and both mother's and children's cognitive functioning. Results revealed that greater child maladjustment was linked with increasing age, Caucasian (as opposed to African American) ethnicity, severity of maternal psychiatric disturbance, higher maternal cognitive abilities (among African Americans) and lower child cognitive abilities (among Caucasians). Limitations of the study are discussed, as are implicatio ns of findings for future research.