Mutual Dissatisfaction Between Mother and Son in Substance‐Abusing and Normal Families

Authors:
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This study compares relationship satisfaction between mother and son in families where the father either qualified for a diagnosis of psychoactive substance use disorder (SA+) or had no lifetime psychiatric diagnosis (SA−). The authors found that there was greater mutual dissatisfaction in SA+ families compared with SA‐ families. The magnitude of dissatisfaction covaried with behavioral disturbance in the children; however, in SA+ families, mother‐son dissatisfaction correlated positively with externalizing and internalizing behaviors in the children, whereas in SA‐ families dissatisfaction correlated only with externalizing behaviors. The results suggest that in SA+ families, generalized behavioral deviations in the child, combined with parent‐offspring dissatisfaction, may facilitate the child's disengagement from parental influence and promote negative association with peers.

This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit: