Are Parent Substance Use Severity and Psychopathology Associated with Parenting Behaviors Among Parents with Substance Use Disorders?

Objective. We sought to understand associations between parent substance use severity, fentanyl use, and parent psychopathology with two domains of parenting behaviors, warmth and hostility. Design. We analyzed cross-sectional data from parents with substance use disorders (n = 308). We tested whether substance use severity and psychopathology were associated with parenting behaviors (warmth and hostility). We also examined associations between fentanyl use and parenting behaviors. Additionally, we investigated whether the interactions between substance use severity and psychopathology, as well as fentanyl use and psychopathology, were associated with parenting behaviors. Results. We found that greater psychopathology was associated with greater self-reported hostile parenting behaviors. Substance use severity was not associated with self-reported warm or hostile parenting behaviors, and there was no significant interactive effect between parent psychopathology and substance use severity on parenting behaviors. Additionally, there were no significant differences in warm or hostile parenting behaviors for parents with fentanyl use when compared to those who did not use fentanyl in the last three months. Conclusions. These results underscore the importance of addressing psychopathology symptoms among parents with substance use disorders.