Alcohol and drug-related effects on development: A new emphasis on contextual factors.

The articles in this special issue bring together two lines of research that reflect different perspectives on the effects of parental alcohol and drug abuse—the long-term impact of teratogenic insult due to prenatal exposure and the developmental risks associated with being reared by a substance-abusing parent. These articles reflect major methodological advances, including the use of moderator variables—particularly, parental psychopathology and child temperament—for detecting the adverse impact of parental substance abuse on child outcome. In several articles, more comprehensive sets of control variables are considered than in prior studies, and investigators examine the use of aggregate and cumulative risk factors in an attempt to better model underlying conditions of risk. Another advance is that most of these studies recognize the importance of quantifying levels of prenatal alcohol and drug exposure. In focusing our attention simultaneously on prenatal exposure, parental substance abuse and comorbid psychopathology, child temperament, and contextual factors, these studies offer a better understanding of the complex interrelated influences of risk factors on the child's cognitive and socio-emotional development. © 2001 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]