| Child welfare systems (CWS) across America have struggled to serve families with substance abuse problems. Previous studies present that 14% to 79% of families involved in foster care system are affected by parental substance abuse, depending on the method for estimation and the focus of the study. Though parental substance abuse and family functioning have been highly intertwined, the mechanisms through which substance abuse impacts family functioning are less well understood.;This study incorporates relational-cultural theory and social cognitive theory to examine how parental substance abuse and family functioning operate interactively as interlocking determinants of each other in the context of children placed in foster care. This study selected a sample of 352 families from the Kansas Serving Substance Affected Families (KSSAF) program and conducted a panel study over two waves of KSSAF data to examine whether there exists contemporaneous and/or longitudinal causal effects of parental substance use, family functioning and parental self-efficacy on one another.;Results of this study suggest significant and negative associations between parental substance use and family functioning are found at both retro-pre- and post-tests, even after controlling for both time-varying and time-invariant covariates. On the other hand, neither of the cross-lagged effects of one construct at retro-pre-test on the other at post-test was significant, indicating the initial level of family functioning does not predict parental substance use at post-test, and the initial level of substance use does not predict family functioning at post-test either.;This study also found a significant and highly negative association of parental self-efficacy with substance use at retro-pre-test but not at post-test. The initial level of parental self-efficacy also negatively predicted the subsequent substance use. Finally, the association between family functioning and self-efficacy is significant at retro-pre-test but not at post-test. The positive association at retro-pre-test indicates that families with a higher parental self-efficacy are more likely to function well. The cross-lagged effect of family functioning at retro-pre-test on self-efficacy at post-test is significant and positive, suggesting that the prior level of family functioning strongly predicts parental self-efficacy at the next time point. This study has further addressed implications for social work theory, practice, policy and research. Limitations and future studies are also discussed. |
