LEARNING MORE - SIFTING THROUGH THE RESEARCH

Every year, hundreds of articles are published that focus on children of substance abusers.  The vast majority focus on children of alcoholics, but there is a growing literature on children of other drug users. To explore some of the recent literature, you can try:

ERIC - the Education Resource and Information Clearinghouse

MedLine- abstracts and references from more than 30 substance abuse related journals, including the Journal of School Health, Journal of Substance Abuse, and Journal of Drug Education.

Another option is to explore any of the online databases, such as the Web of Addictions (a website with an incredible volume of links to databases, organizations, professional journals and associations), ETOH (an alcohol-specific database managed by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism), or the Project Cork Database (another good online resource out of Dartmouth College's Project Cork).

Amazon.com or your local library or bookstore - There are hundreds of books on children of substance abusers available in local libraries and bookstores or online.  While they may not specialize in rigorous research, they do have a lot of publications that include research findings.  These publications are a good way to become more acquainted with the issues. 

If you have access to a university library, you also might want to try accessing the PsychLit database, which is not currently available on-line for free.

Keywords that might be helpful to you in on-line searches include: