Abstract
According to a nationwide survey conducted in 2017, approximately 12% of Americans aged 12 and older had issues with substance use (Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, 2018). Finding ways to increase the effectiveness of rehabilitation is one way to help reduce this public health crisis. Substance use is not just a personal issue, it also affects families. Thus research, on rehabilitation should consider the effect of families. Participants in this study were individuals (N = 124; ages 19 – 73; 77 female, 41 male, 6 undisclosed) undertaking substance use rehabilitation in Sacramento, California. Some of the participants were in a rehabilitation facility that provided onsite childcare, while others could not have their children with them. A 2 (childcare at facility, no childcare at facility) X 3 (no custody, partial custody, full custody) multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used with parent participants to compare the main effects of childcare at the rehabilitation facility, custody of children, and the interaction between childcare and custody on mental health problems, emotion regulation difficulties, and quality of life. It was hypothesized that parents who have custody of their children and onsite childcare would have fewer mental health problems, fewer emotion regulation difficulties, and higher quality of life compared to their peers in rehabilitation. When the data were analyzed, there were no significant main effects or interactions. However, main effects of childcare and custody status both approached significance. Contrary to expectations, results suggested that participants with onsite childcare had more mental health problems and lower quality of life compared to participants without onsite childcare. However, these results should be interpreted with caution. In addition, a one-way MANOVA was used to compare parent participants and non-parent participants on mental health problems, emotion regulation difficulties, and quality of life. Quality of life approached significance. Again, interpreted with caution, parents had higher quality of life compared to participants who were not parents. These findings suggest custody of children and onsite childcare at rehabilitation centers may affect parent mental health, but not in the ways one might expect. Implications for recovery outcomes are discussed.