Annual of social work, Vol. 31 No. 3, 2024.
Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.3935/ljsr.v31i3.572
Comparison of the socio-emotional functioning of young children of mothers with addiction problems in the integrated care model and the classic care model
Lidija Bandić
; Centar za žene, majke i djecu – Reto
*
Tina Krznarić Jaković
; Cognitiva, obrt za poslovne i računalne usluge
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
It is estimated that 50-80% of child custody cases worldwide involve mothers with addiction problems who are mothers of minor children (Harp and Oser, 2016, Public Health England, 2018, Taplin and Mattick, 2013). The relationship between maternal addiction disorders and separation from the child is highly complex (Wall Wieler et al, 2018). In recent years, residential recovery programs have offered programs and services that allow children to stay with their mother while she is in intensive addiction treatment (VanDeMark, O'Keefe, Finkleseing & Gampel, 2005; Worley, Conners, Williams & Bokony, 2005). The traditional classic model in the case of a mother in need of residential treatment is aimed at individual recovery from addiction, and does not include parenting, i.e. the children are not placed in the Children's Home. Integrated treatment models that include children have become more common, and issues of child well-being while simultaneously treating the mother's addiction remain (Werner, Young, Dennis & Amateri, 2007). The aim of the research is to determine the differences in the socio-emotional functioning of children of mothers undergoing addiction treatment in an integrated model that allows children to stay with their mother in residential treatment until she reaches a stable recovery, compared to the classic model in which children are separated from their mother requires an intensive level of support in residential treatment. For the purposes of this research, Achenbach's questionnaire for the assessment of behavioral and emotional problems (Achenbach, Rescorla, 2023), and Hudson's index of relationships in the home (Hudson, 1981) were applied. The results show statistically significant differences in the measured variables, in such a way that children from the integrated care model on children from the classic form of care achieve better results on activity, sociability, school-related competencies as well as overall competencies. Furthermore, children from the integrated form of care compared to the classic form report better relationships in the home, the primary environment in which they live. These are large effect sizes, which indicate significant differences between children from the two forms of care on these variables. The results suggest that integrated family-centered residential treatment could offer a more favorable context in which to coordinate services aimed at promoting maternal and child health, developing healthy relationships, improving the child's well-being, and optimizing the child's developmental potential in terms of physical and mental health.
Keywords
mother's dependence; parenting support; child's well-being; integrated form of care; socioemotional child development
Hrčak ID:
335835
URI
Publication date:
3.8.2025.
Visits: 196 *