Prenatal exposure to substance, for example, cocaine influences the childhood development. Children prenatally exposed to cocaine are at a greater risk if developing behavior problems because of the negative impact cocaine has on the brain regions involved in the aggressive behavior (Veira, Finger, and Colder, 2014). Some research studies found higher prenatal cocaine exposure was associated with higher behavior problems, compared with a few or no cocaine exposure with steady effects from seven to eleven years of age. Several factors contribute to timing, the amount of dosage, and the collection of other substance, such as, alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana. However, biological factors and environmental risk on the child adjustment may weakened by close caregiving experience within the family. The role of the maternal warm/sensitive parenting of high level of violence exposure or prenatal cocaine exposure has occasionally been observed at younger ages. Most mothers using cocaine during pregnancy, possibly uses other substances (alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana).
In a case study conducted, a sample of 216 mother-child dyads was used to examine the mother level of warm, sensitivity, and child behavior. The mother ranged from 18 to 42 years of age, while 74% of the mothers was African American. Mother-child dyads were assessed for 4 to 8 weeks. Interviews, observations of the mother interactions, and child’s assessment was the essential procedures. However, the legal guardian of the child was also contacted and asked to participate to acquire accurate information about the exposure prenatal substance use.

The results found the mothers in the cocaine group was heavy users of cigarettes and alcohol during pregnancy. There were no significance difference of maternal warmth and sensitivity on child exposure to violence. However, higher exposure to cocaine during pregnancy were associated with higher child behavior problems.

There
were several limitation to the studies, but the most important was the prenatal and postnatal exposure used was hard to detect, because the mother was unwilling to report truth information about using cocaine.


Veira, Y., Finger, B., Schueteze, P., Colder, C.R., Fodleski, S., & Eiden, R.D. (2014) Child behavior problems: Role of cocaine use, parenting, and child exposure to violence.