Elizabeth M. Tracy

Most grandparents raising grandchildren are embedded in a network of family members who either help them carry out the caregiving task or complicate that role. This study examined how grandmothers described family relationships, that is, with the grandchild’s parents, grandmother’s spouses/partners, and other relatives. Data were drawn from 457 weekly journal entries submitted by 129 grandmother caregivers. Using thematic analysis, a three-person team coded using NVIVO 12. Grandmothers described three overarching relationship themes: managing conflicted relationships with the grandchild’s parents, balancing relationships with their spouse/partner, and maintaining relationships with other relatives. Implications for practice are provided.

Women in recovery from substance use disorders often have difficulty establishing recovery-supportive networks. This exploratory study uses qualitative thematic analysis to examine how 88 women in recovery describe the actions they take to manage their personal social networks 12 months after intake into residential substance use treatment. Participants describe disconnecting or limiting contact with recovery-endangering people and adding recovery-supportive people to their networks as primary relationship actions for maintaining recovery. Their actions to build recovery-supportive networks can provide a focus for clinical work to help them become integrated into their communities.

Background: Poor early relationship experiences during the first 16 years of life may negatively impact adults’ capacity to establish and utilize social support (Suchman et al. 2005 Suchman NE , McMahon TJ , Slade A , Luthar SS . 2005. How Early Bonding, Depression, Illicit Drug Use, and Perceived Support Work Together to Influence Drug‐Dependent Mothers' Caregiving. Am J Orthopsychiatry. 75:431–445. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] ). This is especially of concern for women with substance use disorders (SUD) for whom social support is associated with recovery maintenance and treatment retention (Gregoire and Snively 2001 Gregoire TK , Snively CA . 2001. The relationship of social support and economic self-sufficiency to substance abuse outcomes in a long-term recovery program for women. J Drug Educ. 31:221–237. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] ). The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of early relationship experiences, specifically paternal and maternal warmth, on recovery related social support and personal network characteristics among African American (AA) and non-AA women in treatment for SUD. Methods: Data were collected from 254 women in substance abuse treatment, 146 AA and 108 non-AA. Ordinal logistic, Poisson or multiple linear regressions were fitted to predict the impact of maternal and paternal warmth during childhood on adult social network composition and recovery support. Results: Greater maternal warmth was associated with greater recovery-specific social support for both AA (β = 0.12) and non-AA (β = 0.15) women. Paternal, but not maternal, warmth significantly predicted the number of social network members who supported recovery for non-AA women (AOR = 1.04), and number of network members who used drugs and alcohol for AA women (IRR = 0.99). Conclusion: Developmental experiences associated with fathers appear to affect different domains of adult functioning than those associated with mothers, and those effects are different for AA versus non-AA women. Attention to these differences may inform culturally relevant substance abuse prevention and treatment efforts.

Focusing on a program (""Homebuilders"") that has attracted national attention, this book develops implications for family-centered curricula in such areas as social policy, direct practice, program design/management, practice research, theory and prevention.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relative contribution and the relationships between formal (treatment related members) • informal (family members) concrete support and discharge disposition. A total of 172 women interviewed upon intake in one of 3 counties funded substance abuse treatment programs in Cleveland, Ohio. Hierarchical logistic regression was performed to assess the impact of formal concrete support and informal concrete support on the likelihood of a discharge disposition of completed treatment. Formal concrete support showed a statistically significant contribution to discharge disposition, while informal concrete support did not. Findings of this study highlight the importance of formal concrete support. Future research should continue to expand our knowledge of how support from formal treatment services interacts with support from informal (family) networks.

Historically, recovery from substance use disorders (SUD) has focused exclusively on the use or non-use of the addictive substance(s). More recently, SAMSHA [ 1 ] has defined recovery in a more holistic way, using quality of life (QoL) as a measure of recovery for individuals with substance use and mental health disorders. However, little is known about the myriad experiences that inform and affect QoL for individuals with substance use disorders. Using an attachment informed stress-buffering framework, the purpose of this study was to examine the contribution of parental warmth and recovery support to QoL among women in substance abuse treatment. Linear regression and bootstrapping were used to examine direct and mediated effects of parental warmth and recovery support on QoL among 318 women recruited from three inner-city women-only addiction treatment programs. Relationships were assessed across three domains of quality of life: physical, psychological, and social. Parental warmth and recovery support were directly associated with psychological and social QoL, when controlling for the influence of trauma symptoms. Recovery support mediated the relationship between parental warmth and QoL across psychological and social QoL domains. Findings suggest that interventions that focus on attachment-related constructs to enhance recovery support may improve quality of life among women with SUD.

Objective: Approximately 73% of women entering treatment for substance use disorders are mothers of children younger than 18, and the high rate of mental health disorders among mothers with substance use disorders increases their vulnerability to poor parenting practices. Parenting efficacy and social support for parenting have emerged as significant predictors of positive parenting practices among families at risk for child maltreatment. The purpose of the current study was to examine the impact of parenting support and parenting efficacy on the likelihood of out-of-home placement and custody status among the children of mothers with dual substance use and mental health disorders. Methods: This study examined the impact of parenting efficacy and assistance with childcare on the likelihood of child out-of-home placement and custody status among 175 mothers with diagnosed dual substance and mental health disorder and in treatment for substance dependence. Logistic regression was utilized to assess the contributions of parenting efficacy and the number of individuals in mothers’ social networks who assist with childcare to the likelihood of out-of-home placement and custody loss of children. Parenting efficacy was also examined as a mediator using bootstrapping in PROCESS for SPSS. Results: Greater parenting efficacy was associated with lower likelihood of having at least one child in out-of-home placement (B = −.064, SE = .029, p = .027) and lower likelihood of loss of child custody (B = −.094, SE = .034, p = .006). Greater number of children in the 6 to 18 age range predicted greater likelihood of having at least one child in the custody of someone else (B = .409, SE = .171, p = .017) and in out-of-home placement (B = .651, SE = .167, p < .001). In addition, mothers who identified as African American were less likely to have a child in out-of-home placement (B = .927, SE = .382, p = .015) or to have lost custody of a child (B = −1.31, SE = .456, p = .004). Finally, parenting efficacy mediated the relationship between parenting support and likelihood of out-of-home placement (effect = −.0604, SE = .0297, z = 2.035, p = .042) and between parenting support and likelihood of custody loss (effect = −.0332, SE = .0144, z = −2.298, p = .022). Conclusions: Implications for practice include the utilization of personal network interventions, such as increased assistance with childcare, and increased attention to efficacy among mothers with dual disorders.

This study compared compositional, social support, and structural characteristics of personal networks among women in residential (RT) and intensive outpatient (IOP) substance abuse treatment. The study sample included 377 women from inner-city substance use disorder treatment facilities. Respondents were asked about 25 personal network members known within the past 6 months, characteristics of each (relationship, substance use, types of support), and relationships between each network member. Differences between RT women and IOP women in personal network characteristics were identified using Chi-square and t-tests. Compared to IOP women, RT women had more substance users in their networks, more network members with whom they had used substances and fewer network members who provided social support. These findings suggest that women in residential treatment have specific network characteristics, not experienced by women in IOP, which may make them more vulnerable to relapse; they may therefore require interventions that target these specific network characteristics in order to reduce their vulnerability to relapse.