Ph.D. Candidate The Ohio State University Columbus, United States
Background: Although parental substance misuse is one of the most prevailing risks associated with child maltreatment, little is known about the influence of the pandemic on substance use behaviors among child welfare-involved parents. A clear understanding of substance use patterns, including changes in types of substance used is critical for the provision of adequate treatment services in this vulnerable population.
Objectives: To understand the prevalence and nature of substance misuse among mothers involved with the Ohio child welfare system before and during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: Our retrospective study used administrative data from the State of Ohio’s Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS). The sample consists of women with substantiated cases of child abuse or neglect between January 2019 and June 2022. Cases were selected if the female parent was determined to have a substance misuse problem during the comprehensive family assessment at the time of entry. Single changepoint analyses were used to investigate significant differences in mean percentage of cases involving substance misuse during selected weeks of each year.
Results: Unlike the other years studied, the percentage of substance-involved cases increased drastically from the start of 2020 and peaked in the second quarter, where polysubstance and cannabis drove the change. Similar pattern was observed in the percentage involving polysubstance use. Single changepoint analysis validated the observed changes. During weeks 2 through 20 of each year, only 2020 had a statistically significant increase in the percentage of cases involving any substance use in week 10, corresponding to the declaration of national emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Similar changes were also found for cannabis and polysubstance use.
Conclusions: Our finding that the proportion of substance-involved cases increased in the early phases of the pandemic despite a reduction in the overall number of child welfare services referrals corroborates prior studies showing increased prevalence during that time. That cannabis use is a main driver of the observed increase suggests pandemic related changes to daily lives may have increased stress and anxiety which in turn may have increased cannabis use. The high prevalence of polysubstance use is particularly concerning given the negative impact it can have on treatment outcomes. Our findings point to the need for treatment and policy interventions that specifically target polysubstance use. Lastly social work databases, such as child welfare administrative data could be an additional source for drug utilization research. Future studies should explore linking these data across multiple systems such as including behavioral health.
