How Harmful is Caregivers' Hazardous Substance Use? A Meta-Analysis Regarding the Association Between Caregivers'...

Hazardous substance use (including substance use) is associated with a wide range of harmful consequences, especially when these hazardous users are caregivers. However, previous studies have led scholars to question the robustness of the association between caregivers' hazardous substance use and child maltreatment perpetrated by those substance-abusing caregivers. Despite some related meta-analyses previously, researchers have examined different substances separately with limited eligible studies (k_s < 13). Given that, with 54 estimates from 50 studies (k = 54), we conducted a meta-analysis (N = 736,881) to examine the overall association between caregivers' hazardous substance use and child maltreatment, and subgroup analyses to test potential moderators. Results showed a small-to-medium overall effect, Pearson's r = .197, 95% CI [0.159, 0.235]. Subgroup analyses have not identified significant differences in the overall association across different caregiver roles of hazardous substance users, types of child maltreatment, types of consumed substances, reporters of hazardous substance use and child maltreatment, sample sizes, and studies with different quality scores. In sum, our findings indicate that the association between caregivers' hazardous substance use and child maltreatment is relatively small but stable across multiple boundary conditions. While high heterogeneity (I² = 99.20%) cannot by itself negate the stability and interpretability of our results, it indeed calls for more cautious interpretation after taking this point into account. Our findings also have implications for future research and interventions to mitigate child maltreatment.