Substance Abuse & Children

Inpatient admission rates and average length of stay for children of alcoholics are 24% and 29% greater than for children of non-alcoholic parents. Substance abuse and other mental disorders are the most notable conditions among children of addicted parents.
Children of addicted parents are more at risk for alcoholism and drug abuse even if they are adopted and raised apart from their biological parents.
Three of four (71.6%) child welfare professionals cite substance abuse as the top cause for the dramatic rise in child maltreatment since 1986. Most welfare professionals (79.6%) report that substance abuse causes or contributes to at least half of all cases of child maltreatment; 39.7% say it's a factor in over 75% of the cases.
Parental substance abuse and addiction are the chief cause in at least 70-90% of all child welfare spending. Using the more conservative 70 percent figure, in 1998 substance abuse and addiction accounted for approximately $10 billion in federal, state and local government spending simply to maintain child welfare systems.