Addiction remains a significant public health concern. Despite numerous public health initiatives, many parents continue to use substances during the prenatal and postpartum period. While stress has been implicated in the maintenance of substance use disorders more generally, we propose that parenting stress specifically increases vulnerability to substance use in adults caring for young children. To explore this notion, we first consider the neurobiology of the adult transition to parenthood and the value of adopting a parenting-specific approach to understanding addictive processes. Next, we consider the neurobiology of addiction and parenting before directly addressing parenting stress in the context of addiction. Finally, we describe current interventions with parents that incorporate the management of negative affect to enhance caregiving quality and decrease substance use. Taken together, this article proposes that the unique demands of caring for a developing child may be more stressful above and beyond other forms of stress. As a consequence, intervention approaches that target stress in the parenting role hold promise for decreasing parental substance abuse.

成瘾仍然是重大的公共卫生问题。尽管采取了许多公共卫生措施，许多父母在产前和产后仍继续使用这种物质。虽然压力在更广泛的意义上与维持物质使用障碍有关，但我们建议父母抚养压力会特别增加在照顾幼儿的成年人中使用药物的脆弱性。为了探索这一概念，我们首先考虑成年人向父母身份过渡的神经生物学，以及采用特定于父母的方法来理解成瘾过程的价值。接下来，我们先考虑成瘾和养育的神经生物学，然后再直接解决成瘾背景下的养育压力。最后，我们描述了目前与父母进行的干预，这些干预结合了负面影响的管理，以提高护理质量并减少药物使用。综上所述，本文提出，照料发育中的孩子的独特要求可能会比其他形式的压力更大。结果，针对父母压力的干预方法有望减少父母滥用药物。