A large percentage of American children are growing up in households with at least one parent who uses alcohol or other drugs in problematic ways — raising the risk that those children will go on to do the same, a new study suggests.
Using data from 2023 to give as current a view as possible, the researchers estimate that 19 million children — 1 in 4 of Americans under age 18 — live with a parent or other adult who meets the definition for a substance use disorder.
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Of them, an estimated 6 million children live with an adult who has a mental illness in addition to their substance use disorder.
The most common substance that parents showed disordered use of was alcohol, with survey data leading to estimates that 12 million parents meet criteria for some level of alcohol use disorder. Just over 6 million parents may meet criteria for cannabis use disorder. About 3.4 million meet criteria for disordered use of multiple substances.
The number living with a parent who had any substance use disorder in 2023 is higher than the 17 million estimated in a paper published just months ago that used data from 2020.
“The increase and fact that one in four children now live with parental substance use disorder brings more urgency to the need to help connect parents to effective treatments, expand early intervention resources for children, and reduce the risk that children will go on to develop substance use issues of their own,” said lead author of the new study Sean Esteban McCabe, Carol J. Boyd Collegiate Professor of Nursing and professor of nursing, School of Nursing, research professor for the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, faculty associate for the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research.
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