SUBSTANCE-ABUSING FATHERS IN FAMILY COURT |
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| Authors: | Thomas J. McMahon Francis D. Giannini |
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| Affiliation: | Thomas J. McMahon, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine. He earned his doctoral degree in child and school psychology at New York University. He is interested in ways parental substance abuse compromises family environments and increases risk for poor developmental outcomes in children, and he is presently the principal investigator for several projects focusing more specifically on the parenting of drug-abusing men.;Francis D. Giannini, M.S.W., is a research associate in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine. He received his master's degree in social work from Southern Connecticut State University. He is interested in male gender and risk for substance abuse, qualitative methods in substance abuse research, and clinical intervention with substance-abusing men. He is presently coordinating a psychotherapy development project being pursued with drug-abusing men who would like to be a more effective father. |
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| Abstract: | Although all forms of substance abuse disproportionately affect men during early to middle adulthood, when many are fathering children, the status of substance-abusing men as parents is largely ignored in public policy, service delivery, and research exploring the consequences of chronic drug and alcohol abuse. In this review, the authors highlight issues of potential concern to professionals working with this poorly understood, negatively stereotyped population of fathers in family court settings. After reviewing the existing literature on substance-abusing fathers and their children, the authors challenge family court personnel to use (a) awareness of stereotyping, (b) clinical assessment, (c) the principles of therapeutic jurisprudence, and (d) treatment resources to minimize, as much as possible, the risk for poor developmental outcomes incurred by children with a substance-abusing father. |
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| Keywords: | fathers family court substance abuse family relations |
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