Parental Opioid Misuse and Adolescent-Reported Positive Parenting Behaviors: An Analysis of Parent-Child Dyads From the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Purpose: Past studies emphasize positive associations between parental opioid misuse and adverse outcomes for children and families yet neglect to understand whether opioid misuse interferes with positive parenting behaviors, such as checking on homework or engaging in serious discussions with an adolescent child.

Method: We analyzed data collected from parent-adolescent dyads (N = 24,900) surveyed for the 2014-2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, specifically examining relationships between parents' past-year opioid misuse or heroin use and adolescent-reported parenting behaviors.

Results: For both mother-child and father-child dyads, parent-reported opioid misuse was significantly associated with only one of 10 positive parenting behaviors. Mothers who reported misusing opioids helped with homework less often (p = .04) and fathers who reported misusing opioids had less frequent engagement in serious conversations with their adolescent children (p = .04). Having longer conversations with children about substance use was positively associated with mother-reported opioid misuse (p = .013), mother-reported heroin use (p < .001), and father-reported heroin use (p < .001).

Discussion: These data provide insight into existing deficits and strengths of parents who have misused opioids in the past and present opportunities to intervene in the family unit to disrupt cycles of intergenerational substance misuse. Our findings reframe positive parenting as an attainable goal for parents who have misused opioids and inform the development of interventions designed to address distinct deficits experienced in mothers and fathers.