Running head: CHILDREN OF THE SUBSTANCE ABUSE WARS 6 Children of the Substance Abuse Wars Tiffany Seace, Veronica Webb, Julia Krueger, Rachel Losey, Emelda Isaac, Angel Reid BSHS/435 October 3, 2016 Dr. Vanessa Byrd Children of the Substance Abuse Wars Approximately 12% of children in the United States have one or both parents with substance abuse issues. According to David Sack (2013), more than 28 million American children have one parent who is addicted to alcohol but this addiction is not being discussed at home (Sack, 2013) and of those 11 million are under the age of 18 (Rodriquez, 2004). These children are at a higher risk of developing complex behavioral, academic, and emotional difficulties than other children. Children of addicts are four times more likely to marry an addict and are at risk of becoming a victim of abuse, neglect, or violence. Children of addicted parents are fiercely loyal to the parent. Adolescents are hesitant to open up and are vulnerable. They are reluctant to reveal parental confidences, even if they urgently need the help (Sack, 2013). Statistics of Children from Parental Substance Abuse Backgrounds It is important to analyze the severity of the problem before analyzing the effectiveness of counseling as a corrective measure. It is estimated that nearly 8.3 million children under the age of 18 live with at least one substance abusing/ dependent parent. Also, approximately more than half of child maltreatment cases in the United States were because of parental substance abuse in one way or another. Kirisci et al. (2002) stated that recent research has found that children of substance-addicted parents are more likely to suffer neglect or abuse than those children who do not have an addicted parent. Additionally, comparable to inattentive mothers and fathers, numerous substance-addicted parents were also mistreated and/or neglected as children (Dunn et al., 2001; Connors et al., 2004; Cash & Wilke, 2003), and describe other disturbing incidents as adults and children (Cohen et al., 2008). Wulczyn, Ernst & Fisher (2011) hypothesize that nearly 61% of infants and 41% of older children in the welfare system stem from families with active parental alcohol abuse issues. Children who enter the system as infants are more likely to spend a longer duration in care. Infants, especially those aged three months or younger, are more apt to be adopted and spend less or no time in group home placement. All children who enter out-of-home care are vulnerable to delays in social, emotional and cognitive development, which increases the risk of school failure, drug and alcohol abuse and criminality. The toxic stress levels that some infants endure links with developmental delays and poor outcomes for children who are the victims of abuse and neglect. Up to 80% of parents who are involved in the child welfare system are substance abusers, and many have had prior involvement with the system, either as chi ...