Children Living with Substance-Dependent or Substance-Abusing Parents: 2002 to 2007

The report provides the average annualized estimates of the number of children under age 18 living with a substance-abusing parent, that is, a parent who was dependent on or abused alcohol or an illicit drug.

Key points from the study include:

• More than 8.3 million children under 18 years of age (11.9 percent) lived with at least one parent who was dependent on or abused alcohol or an illicit drug during the past year.
• Of these, almost 7.3 million (10.3 percent) lived with a parent who was dependent on or abused alcohol, and about 2.1 million (3.0 percent) lived with a parent who was dependent on or abused illicit drugs.
• About 5.4 million children under 18 years of age lived with a father who met the criteria for past year substance dependence or abuse, and 3.4 million lived with a mother who met the criteria.

This document is available at http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k9/SAparents/SAparents.cfm.