The impacts of child welfare policies on substance use disorder treatment for pregnant women

Stageman, Rita (2023) The impacts of child welfare policies on substance use disorder treatment for pregnant women. Doctoral thesis, Northern Arizona University.

Text Stageman_2023_impacts_child_welfare_policies_on_substance_use_disorder.pdf - Published Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (1MB) | Request a copy

Abstract

Public attention to substance exposed newborns has increased over the last two decades resulting in various state responses to prenatal substance use. Following amendments to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) in 2003, most states have tasked their child welfare systems with the identification of and intervention on prenatal substance use. However, policies regarding identification and intervention on prenatal substance use differ considerably by state. The presumed intention of policies governing prenatal substance use is to reduce the prevalence of substance use during pregnancy thereby promoting better neonatal and family outcomes. However, until recently, few studies have examined the influence of these public policies on health outcomes. This project employs secondary data analysis to explore the relationship between prenatal substance use policies and entry into substance use disorder (SUD) treatment for pregnant women. Racial disparities within intervention systems are considered. A review of the literature in this area is presented along with policy mapping and descriptive statistics. The association of state policies on rates of racial disproportionality in child welfare systems is explored. Finally, the influence of state prenatal substance use policies on pregnant women’s voluntary entry into SUD treatment is examined. Results suggest that many public policies contribute to rates of disproportionality in child welfare systems among Native American and Black populations. Certain prenatal substance use policies are associated with decreased rates of self-referral into SUD treatment for pregnant women. Implications of these findings for practitioners and policymakers are discussed.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Publisher’s Statement:	© Copyright is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the Cline Library, Northern Arizona University. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.
Keywords:	Child welfare; Prenatal substance use; Public policy; Racial disparities; Voluntary treatment
Subjects:	R Medicine > RJ Pediatrics
MeSH Subjects:	I Anthropology,Education,Sociology and Social Phenomena > I03 Human Activities
NAU Depositing Author Academic Status:	Student
Department/Unit:	Graduate College > Theses and Dissertations College of Social and Behavioral Science > Institute for Human Development
Date Deposited:	29 Jul 2026 17:52
Last Modified:	29 Jul 2026 17:52
URI:	https://openknowledge.nau.edu/id/eprint/6326

Actions (login required)

IR Staff Record View

Downloads