Interventions aimed towards children who live in environments where adults misuse substances : A scoping review

Sammanfattning: Children who grow up with one or both parents who substance misuse are at an elevated risk of being harmed. This study aimed to compile current knowledge on directed interventions intended to improve the outcomes of children who live in environments where adults misuse substances, and to analyze children’s influence and participation in interventions. The method used was a systematically undertaken scoping review. Despite a comprehensive searching strategy only ten relevant studies were found. There was a low geographical spread indicating the lack of intervention studies, including within Scandinavian settings. The result showed that nine out of ten interventions were group support. Interventions were manualised and primarily focused on changing children’s behaviour or increasing children’s general knowledge about misuse. Hart’s participation ladder was used to assess children’s degree of participation and influence in both intervention and research setting. Results indicated that children had low to mediocre degrees of participation. An implication for the future is that support groups showed positive effects on children’s attitudes towards misuse by increased knowledge about parental substance misuse. There is still a need for more intervention studies before it is possible to identify the best types of support for children affected by parental substance misuse.