Parents With a Mental Illness or Substance Use Disorder: Parent and Adolescent Differences by Parent Treatment...

To compare parent characteristics and adolescent mental health and substance use behaviors among parents with a mental illness or in need of substance use disorder (SUD) treatment who did and did not receive treatment.

We used paired parent-adolescent data from the 2015 to 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. For parents who had any mental illness (weighted N = 5,529,000 for mothers and 2,208,000 for fathers), a serious or moderate mental illness (weighted N = 2,854,000 for mothers and 963,000 for fathers), or needed SUD treatment (weighted N = 1,200,000 for mothers and 1,308,000 for fathers), we compared parent characteristics and adolescent outcomes by parent receipt of mental health or SUD treatment.

Among parents with any mental illness or a serious or moderate mental illness, a higher percentage of those who received treatment were non-Hispanic White and had a college education, private health insurance, and income more than 2 times the federal poverty level than those who did not receive treatment. Among parents who needed SUD treatment, a higher percentage of those who received treatment were non-Hispanic White, not in the labor force, and had less than a college degree, public/government health insurance, and income below the federal poverty level than those who did not receive treatment. Most adolescents (59%-95%), regardless of parent treatment receipt, did not have a major depressive episode, use alcohol or drugs, or exhibit aggressive behavior in the past year.

Results highlight nuanced differences in parent characteristics and adolescent mental health and substance use behaviors by parent receipt of mental health or SUD treatment.