Child Maltreatment and Substance Abuse Among U.S. Army Soldiers
Gibbs, D. A., Martin, S. L., Johnson, R. E., Rentz, E. D., Clinton-Sherrod, M., & Hardison, J. (2008). Child Maltreatment,
13(3), 259-268.
http://cmx.sagepub.com/
This study analyzed U.S. Army data on all substantiated incidents of child maltreatment from 2000-2004 to understand the extent
of substance abuse among child maltreatment offenders within the military.
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13% of Child maltreatment offenders were noted to have been abusing alcohol (84%), illicit drugs (6%), or both (5%) at the
time of their first child maltreatment incident. Child maltreatment offenders whose first incident involved substance abuse
were more likely to: have been referred to substance abuse services prior to the first incident of maltreatment.
Although the odds of offender substance abuse at the time of maltreatment did not vary by pay grade or soldier age,
substance abuse was higher for married and white soldiers.
Odds of substance abuse nearly tripled in child maltreatment incidents that also involved co-occurring spouse abuse.
Substance abuse assessment tools should be attentive to soldier’s family situations and include referrals to support
services.
Assessment of child maltreatment cases should consider the possibility of co-occurring mental health problems particularly
among men, individuals who have previous substance abuse referrals, and incidents involving spousal abuse.
Publicizing and encouraging participation in programs that utilize available support services may reduce stigma around
using formal services.
Systems improvements may be made to integrate and coordinate the services provided for individuals with both family
violence and substance abuse.
Military service providers and civilian child protective services who serve military installments/populations should
coordinate cross-training to improve services and outcomes for families.
Further prospective research should be conducted to establish a better understanding about the nature of the relationship
of substance abuse and recurrent child maltreatment.
Future research should also include analysis of mental health disorders and other co-occuring problems to better
understand the factors related to child maltreatment.
Prepared by Military REACH Team.
For additional information, please visit http://reachmilitaryfamilies.arizona.edu
Background Information
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Quantitative (tabular) analyses of historic records data, Kaplan Meier Survival Functions to analyze length of stay in the
Army.
This article focused on substantiated maltreatment cases reported in the Army Central Register – the Family Advocacy
Programs electronic information system. These data were linked to the Drug and Alcohol Management Information
System, which is the data system for the Army Substance Abuse Programs.
3,959 substantiated maltreatment cases from 2000 to 2004 were analyzed. Of these, substance use was present at the
time of the first incident in 522 cases.
These analyses included only U.S. Army data.
The analyses do not establish causality or the nature of the relationship between substance abuse and maltreatment, for
example co-occurring mental health disorders were not considered.
There is a potential for under or inconsistent reporting of maltreatment cases, possibly because of the negative career and
personal consequences associated with child maltreatment.
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Prepared by Military REACH Team.
For additional information, please visit http://reachmilitaryfamilies.arizona.edu