Lessons learned from study of the developmental impact of parental alcohol use

This overview outlines the magnitude of the impact of parental substance abuse on children's development. The aim of this special issue is described: to encourage research productivity by promoting integration between two traditionally separate literatures with quite different theoretical perspectives: (1) the effects of prenatal substance exposure; and (2) the impact on children of postnatal rearing by parents addicted to substances. Because study of the developmental impact of parental alcohol use has a long research tradition, lessons learned can guide the field. Thus, this overview focuses on the role of maternal drinking in the emergence of childhood psychopathology, a topic of interest to infant mental health. As an example, this article features multiple findings from O'Connor's programmatic research, which is built upon current models of development and integrated theoretical perspectives, and includes both lower and higher risk samples. These data show that women in a middle‐class sample who drank more heavily during pregnancy had infants with higher levels of negative affect and insecure attachments. At ages 5–6, a greater percentage of these alcohol‐exposed children showed significant levels of depression than expected for their age. Prenatal alcohol exposure and maternal depression both contributed significantly to prediction of preschoolers' depression, and findings could not be explained by mother's current drinking. Congruent results from a higher risk sample show how cumulative risk can exacerbate problems, and extend earlier data by documenting the mother–child interplay that can maintain or reduce the deleterious effects of prenatal alcohol exposure over time. Results are discussed in light of current theory about the early emergence of internalizing disorders, with implications for research and intervention. This overview ends by introducing the articles in this special issue, and how each contributes to advancing its aim.