Developmental Concerns in
Substance-Affected Children
Factors that affect developmental outcome in the prenatally
substance-exposed child:
Prenatal factors
- genetic
resilience of the fetus
- maternal
health
- prenatal
care
- developmental
status of the fetus at time of exposure
Postnatal factors
- access
to food and other basic resources
- caregiver
stability/responsiveness
- caregiver’s
internal working model of caregiving
- caregiver
risk factors (mental illness, uncontrolled substance use)
- caregiver
social support
- consistency
in housing, routine, guidelines
- safety
from abuse/neglect
- caregiver’s
ability to respond to child within context of child’s developmental
needs
Disorganized Attachment
- Pattern
used to describe infants who lack a coherent strategy for accessing their
attachment figure
- Assessed
using the Strange Situation experimental procedure
- Securely
attached infants will use the caregiver as a reference point from which
to explore their environment
- Infants
with disorganized attachment will show confused, conflictual or fearful
behaviour)
- Linked
to fear of the caregiver, uncertainty about caregiver reactions, and a
history of contradictory responses by the caregiver
- Families
characterized by poverty, parental psychiatric disturbance, parental
substance abuse, and a history of abuse of the parent in childhood have
much higher rates of Disorganized Attachment (Carlson et al., 1989)
- Strong
links between quality of attachment and later cognition, social skills,
adaptive behaviour, mental health