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ADOPTION AND PRENATAL ALCOHOL AND DRUG EXPOSURE
Belief #3
The prenatal environment, not the postnatal environment, is the primary determinant of a child's health and development.
Research Findings
The outcomes for children of drug-using parents depend on the dynamic interaction of the child and the social environment. Postnatal factors bear on the ability of the newborn prenatally exposed to drugs to recover; recovery of functioning is facilitated by a favorable care taking environment.
Factors related to mother's prenatal and postnatal status:
- Medical problems: mothers who misuse drugs are less likely to have prenatal care and suffer from a number of medical problems
- Co-morbidity: presence of associated mental health and social problems [histories of childhood physical and sexual abuse, physical abuse during adulthood; depression and associated problems]
Environmental factors in the home associated with developmental outcomes:
- Environmental factors, such as family violence, can be as significant in determining the child's health and developmental outcome as the prenatal substance exposure.
- Environmental factors, such as a nurturing and appropriately stimulating environment, can promote the child's health and development.
- A substantial number of children who have been prenatally exposed to alcohol/drugs - most of whom remain with their birth families - grow up in environments characterized by postnatal risk factors:
- poverty
- exposure to violence
- inadequate caregiving; inadequate or inappropriate interactions with children
- lack of adult supervision
- parental abuse of alcohol and other drugs
- child abuse and neglect
- foster care entry with multiple placements
- disorganization and instability
Environmental factors related to foster care entry:
With abuse and neglect, there is the risk of foster care entry and for many children, multiple placements while in care - the research confirms that the number of moves a child experiences while in care is more significant in determining how well a child will function later than whether or not the birth mother used drugs during pregnancy
Ornoy, Michailevskaya, and Lukashov (1996): The Developmental Outcome of Children Born to Heroin Dependent Mothers, Raised at Home or Adopted
Israeli study of 5-6 years old, comparing 83 children born to heroin-dependent mothers with 76 children born to heroin-dependent fathers and three control groups: 50 children with environmental deprivation, 50 normal children from families of moderate to high socioeconomic status without environmental deprivation, and 80 children from kindergarten in Jerusalem.
Among the findings:
- When children born to heroin-dependent mothers were divided to those what were adopted at a very young age and to those raised at home, the adopted children were found to function similarly to the controls while those not adopted functioned significantly lower.
- The children not exposed in-utero to heroin but reared in "neglecting" and "abusing" environments functioned even less well than the children born to heroin dependent mothers.
The researchers concluded that "the developmental outcome of children born to heroin-dependent mothers seemed to be influenced by the environment, as those raised in adopting families had normal development".
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
PRENATAL SUBSTANCE EXPOSURE
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