Maternal and paternal warmth impact recovery support and social network composition for substance dependent African American and non-African American women

Background: Poor early relationship experiences during the first 16 years of life may negatively impact adults' capacity to establish and utilize social support (Suchman et al. 2005). This is especially of concern for women with substance use disorders (SUD) for whom social support is associated with recovery maintenance and treatment retention (Gregoire and Snively 2001). The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of early relationship experiences, specifically paternal and maternal warmth, on recovery related social support and personal network characteristics among African American (AA) and non-AA women in treatment for SUD. Methods: Data were collected from 254 women in substance abuse treatment, 146 AA and 108 non-AA. Ordinal logistic, Poisson or multiple linear regressions were fitted to predict the impact of maternal and paternal warmth during childhood on adult social network composition and recovery support. Results: Greater maternal warmth was associated with greater recovery-specific social support for both AA (beta = 0.12) and non-AA (beta = 0.15) women. Paternal, but not maternal, warmth significantly predicted the number of social network members who supported recovery for non-AA women (AOR = 1.04), and number of network members who used drugs and alcohol for AA women (IRR = 0.99). Conclusion: Developmental experiences associated with fathers appear to affect different domains of adult functioning than those associated with mothers, and those effects are different for AA versus non-AA women. Attention to these differences may inform culturally relevant substance abuse prevention and treatment efforts.