Trends in substance use among child welfare-involved parents during the COVID-19 pandemic

Parental substance use is a major risk factor for child maltreatment, but the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on substance use among parents involved in child welfare is not well understood. This study aimed to examine substance use patterns in child welfare cases from 2019 to 2022.

Female parents assessed for child abuse or neglect using administrative data from the Ohio Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (Ohio SACWIS). Substance types were recorded during the family assessment at case entry.

A retrospective observational study was conducted to compare substance involvement before, during, and after the onset of the pandemic. Single changepoint analyses identified significant shifts in the mean percentage of cases involving substance use overall and for specific substances during selected weeks of each year.

Among 264,380 women investigated, 65,796 (24.9 %) were involved with substance use. In 2020, the percentage of cases involving substance use peaked in the second quarter, driven by polysubstance and cannabis use. Changepoint analyses confirmed these changes. Only in 2020 did substance use cases significantly increase (32.4 % to 41.8 %) in week 10, coinciding with the national emergency declaration. Similar increases were observed for polysubstance and cannabis use.

The rise in substance-involved cases early in the pandemic corroborates national trends, with cannabis use notably driving this change, suggesting that parents may have used substances to cope. The high prevalence of polysubstance use highlights the need for targeted treatment programs and policy interventions for parental substance use.