The article, Children of Addicted Parents, from hopenetworks.org, gives information and statistics about children living in homes with addicted parents. One interesting thing mentioned is that alcoholism and other drug addictions have been known to run in families. This is because children of addicted parents are at a higher risk for drug abuse than other children. This connection between a child’s drug use in relation to their parents’ drug use is because of genetic factors and because of the influences of the parents’ attitudes towards drug use.
Addicted parents are often unable to provide the structure and discipline needed by children. The children in these families are often surrounded by increased family conflict involving emotional or physical violence. Many of these children are taken away from their addicted parents and forced into foster care as a way to protect them. This detachment from their parents frequently results in symptoms of depression and anxiety and the children often have anger issues because they feel abandoned.
If a child stays in the home with addicted parents, they commonly experience greater physical and mental health problems which lead to higher health and welfare costs. These children also have high rates of behavior problems because they often “act out” for attention or end up addicted to drugs themselves because they were not taught to avoid drugs.
The article has many statistics to support its statements, but since statistics can easily be misleading, I did not include them. The article itself can be found in its entirety here.
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