Assessment of families who have substance abuse issues: those who maltreat their infants and toddlers and those who do not.

Although an association exists among risk factors of age of child, substance use and child maltreatment, less is known about the differences between substance abusing families who maltreat their children and substance abusing families who do not maltreat their children. The relationship among substance use and maltreatment needs to be further explored to identify specific assessment techniques to discriminate between the two groups. The study findings, based upon case records analyzed in 2002, show there is a set of significant characteristics of families who have a history of substance use and who maltreat their infant and toddlers and those families who do not.