Dataset Information

Maternal Alcohol Use Disorder and Risk of Child Contact with the Justice System in Western Australia: A Population Cohort Record Linkage Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Early contact with the justice system is associated with a multitude of negative outcomes across the life course. This includes an increased risk of ongoing justice contact, social disadvantage and marginalization, and mental health and substance use issues. Children whose mothers have an alcohol use disorder may be at risk of early justice system contact, and we sought to quantify this relationship in a Western Australian cohort.

Methods

This population cohort study made use of linked administrative data. Those in-scope for the study were women who had a birth recorded on the Midwives Notification System (1983 to 2007). The exposed cohort were mothers who had an alcohol-related diagnosis (ICD9/10), recorded on administrative data. This included mental and behavioral disorders which were alcohol related, diseases which could be entirely attributed to alcohol and other ICD alcohol codes. These women were considered to have an alcohol use disorder, which was a proxy for heavy drinking. The comparison cohort was frequency-matched sample with no alcohol-related diagnosis identified on administrative data sets.

Results

After adjusting for potential confounders, children whose mothers had a maternal alcohol use disorder had a significantly increased odds of justice contact when compared to those whose mothers had no diagnosis (odds ratio [OR] = 1.79, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.60 to 1.99). Additional significant maternal factors associated with child justice contact included being Indigenous (OR = 5.14, 95% CI = 4.54 to 5.81), low maternal age, low socioeconomic status, being unmarried, and a history of a mental health problems. Significant child-level factors, which were associated with increased odds of justice contact, included being male, a mental health diagnosis, child protection contact, parity, and academic failure.

Conclusions

Children who were exposed to a maternal alcohol use disorder had significantly increased odds of contact with the justice system. Additional risk was associated with being Indigenous and with markers of social disadvantage. These results suggest that prevention and early intervention services should span across agencies in an effort to reduce risk.

SUBMITTER: Hafekost K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5575459 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Maternal Alcohol Use Disorder and Risk of Child Contact with the Justice System in Western Australia: A Population Cohort Record Linkage Study.

Hafekost Katherine K Lawrence David D O'Leary Colleen C Bower Carol C Semmens James J Zubrick Stephen R SR

Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research 20170622 8

<h4>Background</h4>Early contact with the justice system is associated with a multitude of negative outcomes across the life course. This includes an increased risk of ongoing justice contact, social disadvantage and marginalization, and mental health and substance use issues. Children whose mothers have an alcohol use disorder may be at risk of early justice system contact, and we sought to quantify this relationship in a Western Australian cohort.<h4>Methods</h4>This population cohort study ma ...[more]

PMID: 28641361

Similar Datasets

Project description:ObjectivesExamine the relationship between maternal alcohol use disorder and child school attendance outcomes for non-Indigenous and Indigenous children in Western Australia.DesignPopulation cohort study.SettingRoutinely collected linked administrative health, education and child protection data.ParticipantsThose in-scope for the study were women with a birth recorded on the Western Australian Midwives Notification System (1989-2007). Women who had an alcohol-related diagnosis (International Classification of Diseases Revisions 9/10) recorded on the Hospital Morbidity, Mental Health Inpatients and Outpatients, and Drug and Alcohol Office data sets formed the exposed group. The comparison cohort was frequency-matched to the exposed cohort based on maternal age within Indigenous status and child's year of birth.Primary outcome measureChild's school attendance was obtained from the Department of Education (2008-2012). Poor attendance was defined as <80%?attendance for non-Indigenous children and <60%?attendance for Indigenous children.Results11?430 exposed children and 26?850 unexposed children had a linked attendance record. Maternal alcohol use disorder was significantly associated with increased odds of poor attendance (non-Indigenous: OR=1.61, 95%?CI 1.50 to 1.74; Indigenous: OR=1.66, 95%?CI 1.54 to 1.79). With adjustment for maternal and child factors, there was no significant difference between the timing of alcohol diagnosis relative to pregnancy and attendance outcomes. The population attributable fraction was higher in the Indigenous cohort than the non-Indigenous cohort (6.0% vs 1.3%).ConclusionsMaternal alcohol use disorder was associated with a significantly increased odds of poor school attendance for non-Indigenous and Indigenous children. There was no significant difference between the timing of diagnoses and odds of poor school attendance. This suggests that the effect of maternal alcohol use disorder may not be driven by the neurodevelopmental effects of alcohol exposure in utero, but may be mediated through family or social factors for which we were unable to adjust.

Project description:HIV and psychiatric disorders are prevalent and often concurrent. Childbearing women are at an increased risk for both HIV and psychiatric disorders, specifically depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Poor mental health in the peripartum period has adverse effects on infant development and behaviour. Few studies have investigated the relationship between maternal PTSD and child behaviour outcomes in an HIV vertically infected sample. The aim of this study was to investigate whether maternal postpartum trauma exposure and PTSD were risk factors for child behaviour problems. In addition, maternal depression, alcohol abuse and functional disability were explored as cofactors.The study was conducted in Cape Town, South Africa.70 mother-child dyads infected with HIV were selected from a group of participants recruited from community health centres.The study followed a longitudinal design. Five measures were used to assess maternal trauma exposure, PTSD, depression, alcohol abuse and functional disability at 12 months postpartum: Life Events Checklist (LEC), Harvard Trauma Scale (HTS), Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CESD) Scale and the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS). Child behaviour was assessed at 42 months with the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL).The rate of maternal disorder was high with 50% scoring above the cut-off for depression, 22.9% for PTSD and 7% for alcohol abuse. Half of the children scored within the clinical range for problematic behaviour. Children of mothers with depression were significantly more likely to display total behaviour problems than children of mothers without depression. Maternal PTSD had the greatest explanatory power for child behaviour problems, although it did not significantly predict child outcomes.This study highlights the importance of identifying and managing maternal PTSD and depression in mothers of children infected with HIV. The relationship between maternal PTSD and child behaviour warrants further investigation.

Project description:BackgroundThere is increasing interest in the role played by maternal depression in mediating the effects of adversity during pregnancy and poor infant outcomes. There is also increasing evidence from multilevel regression studies for an association of area-level economic deprivation and poor individual mental health. The purpose of the study reported here is to explore the spatial distribution of postnatal depressive symptoms in South Western Sydney, Australia, and to identify covariate associations that could inform subsequent multilevel studies.MethodsMothers (n?=?15,389) delivering in 2002 and 2003 were assessed at 2-3 weeks after delivery for risk factors for depressive symptoms. The individual-level binary outcome variables were Edinburgh Depression Scale (EDS) >9 and >12. The association between social, demographic and ecological factors and aggregated outcome variables were investigated using exploratory factor analysis and multivariate hierarchical Bayesian spatial regression. Relative risks from the final EDS?>12 regression model were mapped to visualise the contribution from explanatory covariates and residual components.ResultsThe exploratory factor analysis identified six factors: neighbourhood adversity, social cohesion, health behaviours, housing quality, social services, and support networks. Variables associated with neighbourhood adversity, social cohesion, social networks, and ethnic diversity were consistently associated with aggregated depressive symptoms. Measures of social disadvantage, lack of social cohesion and lack of social capital were associated with increased depressive symptoms. The association with social disadvantage was not significant when controlling for ethnic diversity and social capital.ConclusionsThe findings support the theoretical proposition that neighbourhood adversity causes maternal psychological distress and depression within the context of social buffers including social networks, social cohesion, and social services. The finding have implications for the distribution of health services including early nurse home visiting which has recently been confirmed to be effective in preventing postnatal depression.

Dataset Information

Maternal Alcohol Use Disorder and Risk of Child Contact with the Justice System in Western Australia: A Population Cohort Record Linkage Study.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Maternal Alcohol Use Disorder and Risk of Child Contact with the Justice System in Western Australia: A Population Cohort Record Linkage Study.

Similar Datasets

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