Study of Children of Heroin-Addicted Adults Finds Females More Resilient

When raised in a household with a heroin-addicted parent, an individual can be exposed to a number of detrimental experiences before ever reaching the age of maturity. As per a recent Science Daily post, new research has indicated that girls are four times more resilient than boys in overcoming adverse events.

Included in these experiences - beyond simply having a heroin-addicted parent - are family mental illness, having a parent jailed, family violence, experiencing abuse and having a parent die.

In a study conducted by the University of Washington's Social Development Research Group, 70 percent of children were exposed to two or more of these events. Another 62 percent had three or more adverse experiences and 22 percent reported four or more. Those individuals who had no adverse experiences other than an opiate-dependent parent: only 3 percent.

“These are very high-risk kids with at least one parent who is addicted to heroin," said Martie Skinner, a research scientist and lead author of a new study. "What we mean by resilience is a reasonable transition to adulthood by working or being in school, avoiding substance abuse and staying out of trouble with the law in the past five years. These seem like ordinary expectations, but only 30 of the 125 young adults we studied met them."

Skinner went on to note that women are more likely to be resilient mainly because males were more likely to have had criminal charges. There appeared to be no significant findings in the study based on race. In addition, researchers did not find that the number of different types of adverse experiences did not predict resiliency.

"This research and the earlier Focus on Families study highlight how vulnerable these children are," said Skinner. "It also indicates that there are early warning signs, and if children get the attention they need to meet early problems it can reduce the burden on society later on in caring for them."