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Environmental Factors on Development

By: Colleen Meade

It is virtually impossible to discuss the long-term effects of substance abuse in gestation on child development without also discussing the environmental factors contributing to the development of children. These factors include: nutrition, familial conditions (substance abuse, child abuse, etc.), socioeconomic status, and issues related to general healthcare. It seems that the higher the socioeconomic status, the better opportunity a family has for good healthcare and nutrition. Additionally, "empirical studies and clinical experience show that addiction or substance abuse interferes with parenting and contributes to developmental, behavioral, and health problems" (Zuckerman, Frank, & Brown, 1999).

While exposure to drugs and alcohol in the womb might cause damage to the developing fetus, environmental factors might further damage the development of the child, leading to secondary disabilities. Secondary disabilities include: "mental health problems; inappropriate sexual behavior; disrupted school experience; trouble with the law; confinement through incarceration for a crime or inpatient treatment for mental health, or alcohol and drug abuse problems" (Hess, 1998). The "chaotic lifestyle of the addicted mother" tends to lend itself to a home environment containing neglect and poor parental influences. Often times, a woman who abuses drugs during pregnancy will abuse drugs after the birth of the child. "Drug and alcohol abuse by any member of the family can lead to chronic instability, disharmony, and possible violence such that a child's psychosocial, developmental, behavioral, and learning competencies can become seriously compromised" (Poulsen, 1994). Additionally, "substance-using mothers have been found to have less prenatal care (and) were more likely to be hospitalized as a result of violence" (Askin, 2001).

Other common factors among the homes of drug-abusing parents are a lack of adequate health care and good nutrition. Studies have shown that "women who use cocaine during pregnancy were more likely to use other drugs, consume alcohol or smoke, had a lower socioeconmic standard, were more likely to be malnourished" (Askin, 2001). The poor parental care found in many drug-abusive homes leads to neglect of the children, which retards their natural development. "The multiple risk factors in the lifestyle of drug-abusing pregnant women appear to be major factors in the poor growth reported both prenatally and postnatally" (Zuckerman, Frank, & Brown, 1999).

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