Supporting mothers in alcohol and drug recovery services: examining interventions and the experiences of staff

Background Previous research has demonstrated the impact of maternal substance misuse on children (Kelley et al., 2015), and the challenges associated with delivering effective intervention to this population (Greenfield et al., 2007). Parent-child interactions have been shown to be impacted by substance misuse (Pajulo et al., 2001) and interventions have been developed to improve these interactions, in order to target the intergenerational nature of addictions. Aims To identify, synthesise and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions which aim to improve parent-child interactions alongside maternal substance misuse. Method A search of Web of Science Core Collection, EMBASE, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO, CINAHL, Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection, Cochrane, Scopus and PUBMED was carried out on studies published between June 2011 and Jan 2021. Quality rating was carried out by using the Effective Public Health Practice Project Assessment Tool (Thomas et al., 2004). Results Seven studies were included in this review. Six reported improvements in parent-child interaction measures; however, there was a great deal of variation in measures used across papers and study quality. A narrative synthesis was used to describe findings. Conclusion This review suggests that including a parent-child interaction component is important and appears to be beneficial in this population. However, due to the variation in outcome measures used, this review highlights the need for greater consistency in this area of research and calls for an improvement in quality of research. Implications and recommendations for future research are provided