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Study shows mental health, support, not just substance misuse key in parental neglect
LAWRENCE — Substance use disorder has long been considered a key factor in cases of parental neglect. But new research from the University of Kansas shows that such substance abuse does not happen in a vacuum. When examining whether parents investigated by Child Protective Services engaged in neglectful behaviors over the past year, a picture emerges that suggests case workers should look at substance misuse within the context of other factors, like mental health and social supports, to better prevent child neglect and help families.
Book documents Sri Lanka’s unique Buddha image-houses
LAWRENCE – For centuries, they have been intimate spaces for personal prayer and contemplation for the Buddhists of Sri Lanka. But until now, no one had fully documented the existence of nearly 250 ṭämpiṭavihāras – small buildings, raised on stone pillars housing images and relics of the Buddha – scattered across the island nation. Now a book co-written by Kapila Silva, University of Kansas professor of architecture, has done just that
Full stories below.
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Contact: Mike Krings, KU News Service, 785-864-8860, [email protected], @MikeKrings
Study shows mental health, support, not just substance misuse key in parental neglect
LAWRENCE — Substance use disorder has long been considered a key factor in cases of parental neglect. But new research from the University of Kansas shows that such substance abuse does not happen in a vacuum. When examining whether parents investigated by Child Protective Services engaged in neglectful behaviors over the past year, a picture emerges that suggests case workers should look at substance misuse within the context of other factors, like mental health and social supports, to better prevent child neglect and help families.
KU researchers analyzed data of parents investigated for neglectful behavior toward children aged 2-17 and gauged the level of their substance use as well as if they met the criteria for clinical depression. Researchers also studied whether parents had positive social supports such as friends or family, help with children or financial assistance. The results showed that the relationship between parental substance use behaviors and neglect behaviors varied depending on whether the parent was also experiencing clinical depression in the past year and the types of social supports present in their life. For example, substance use disorder among parents with no co-occurring clinical depression contributes to higher annual neglect frequencies compared to substance use disorder among parents with co-occurring clinical depression.
“Substance use may matter differently across different contexts. When a parent is already experiencing clinical levels of depression, does substance misuse exacerbate already present neglect behaviors? Nobody really knows; the evidence is mixed,” said Nancy Kepple, associate professor of social welfare at KU and lead author of the study. “This study is a part of building a case that it’s not one single story when it comes to thinking about how parental substance use is associated with neglectful behaviors.”
The study, co-written with recent KU doctoral graduate Amittia Parker, was published in the journal Children and Youth Services Review.
The study analyzed data from 3,545 parents of children from Wave 4 of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. Parents in the survey reported their levels of substance use as well as symptoms of depression and data on different types of social supports. Previously, little research had been done on the interaction of substance use, clinical depression and social support for parental neglect, as substance use has been viewed as the primary factor in such behaviors. Neglect is a difficult topic to study, Kepple said, as it is the omission of a behavior — providing care and basic needs for a child — as opposed to enacting physical or emotional harm.
Findings showing that the presence of clinical depression and varying types of social support alters the established relationship between substance use disorder and child neglect, suggesting that treatment should look beyond simply promoting abstinence among parents misusing alcohol and other drugs, the researchers said.
For parents without clinical depression, the types of social support alone did not explain neglectful behaviors. But, for their counterparts, it did. Parents experiencing clinical depression were associated with lower neglect frequency when they had people present in their life who they perceived could help raise their children, but those who reported having more friends to spend time with socially had higher rates of neglect.
“For parents who have clinical depression, their substance use does not seem to have as large of an effect if they have social supports that can provide tangible resources to help care for the child,” Kepple said. “Interestingly, having more people to spend time with and who can pull parents out of their home may create opportunities for neglect. People in our lives can pull us away from our responsibilities as much as they can help us navigate through challenges.”
The relationship between substance use and social supports is more complicated for parents with no co-occurring clinical depression. Social companionship could be protective or risky, depending on the type of substance use behaviors that a parent reported. For example, the study found neglect rates were comparable among parents reporting no people in their lives who provided opportunities for recreational activities, regardless of substance use behaviors. In contrast, researchers observed higher neglect risk for parents reporting either harmful/risky substance use or substance use disorders for parents reporting one to two people providing social companionship. Yet, findings showed parents reporting three or more sources of social companionship only increased neglect risks for the subsample of parents reporting past year substance use disorder.
Kepple said future research will further examine the types of social interactions parents have with individuals within their social networks and how that influenced neglectful or harmful behaviors. She also plans to work with parents in recovery from prior substance use disorder to understand how their experiences in recovery services and communities have affected their parenting.
Study results show the importance of not simply relying on a single factor to make determinations in services or treatment for parents who have neglected or are at risk of neglecting their children. To better serve families, evaluating the big picture, including factors like clinical depression, social supports and substance use is necessary, researchers argue. It may require more time, resources and clinical thinking; the data supports modern interventions that are providing comprehensive services that support recovery and well-being of parents to address neglect behaviors.
“Neglect is highly contextual,” Kepple said. “There are lots of reasons it might be occurring, and that’s what we need to understand and further explore. We can’t just say ‘there’s substance misuse, that’s a problem,’ or ‘they have social support, that’s good.’ When you break these things down, context matters. These findings suggest an individualized plan is likely the best plan, given the complex interactions that are occurring among different risk and protective factors. If systems mandate a parent remain abstinent from alcohol or substance use without addressing underlying mental health or social supports needs, we are not addressing the whole picture.”
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Contact: Rick Hellman, KU News Service, 785-864-8852, [email protected], @RickHellman
Book documents Sri Lanka’s unique Buddha image-houses
LAWRENCE – For centuries, they have been intimate spaces for personal prayer and contemplation for the Buddhists of Sri Lanka. But until now, no one had fully documented the existence of nearly 250 ṭämpiṭavihāras – small buildings, raised on stone pillars housing images and relics of the Buddha – scattered across the island nation.
Now a book co-written by Kapila Silva, University of Kansas professor of architecture, and his colleague Dhammika Chandrasekara, dean of the faculty of architecture at the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka, has done just that. “The ṬÄMPIṬAVIHĀRAS of Sri Lanka: Elevated Image-houses in Buddhist Architecture” (Anthem Press) is the product of over 20 years of research by the authors and their architecture students.
Silva, who grew up in Sri Lanka, likened ṭämpiṭavihāras to the chapel of a Christian church.
They are the only elevated Buddha image-houses in the history of Buddhist architecture, and they are found on the grounds of large monasteries.
“The encounter is, in some way, unique,” Silva said, “because the building is so small that only two or three people can be inside the inner sanctum at any given time. So, it feels like the place is for your own private encounter with the Buddha and any other deities represented in the sculptures in it. It’s a visceral experience.”
The KU researcher said he has traced their history back to the 13th century and their antecedents to the 11th century. They were built as late as the late 1800s.
“Sri Lanka became a British colony in 1815,” he said, noting they remained so until independence in 1948. “But even after the pre-colonial era ended, in certain villages, people actually built these until the end of the 19th century. So, we are talking about a six-century span for the existence of these buildings. However, pretty much all the existing ṭämpiṭavihāras are from the mid-18th century onward.”
Silva said the book project can be traced back to 1999, when he began teaching at the University of Moratuwa. One of his fellow architecture instructors was Chandrasekara.
Chandrasekara had his first-year students fan out and document the ṭämpiṭavihāras in their hometowns – producing diagrams and drawings – as a learning exercise of the country’s historic architecture, construction methods and building materials, and how to prepare architectural drawings.
“He realized that these things were not being documented by the national archaeological department, and we have this ton of information, data and very rich work that the students put together,” Silva said. “So, when I joined, we said ‘Let’s make something valuable out of this.’ To start with, we did a small booklet, publishing the drawings of 17 of these examples in 2002.”
The new book is an effort to extend that work nationwide and document ṭämpiṭavihāras definitively. Silva said he researched the subject in depth in order to write the text, took photos and double-checked all the students’ work on his visits home.
Silva says the book settles the question of why ṭämpiṭavihāras are raised above the ground on stone stilts.
“The elevation of the raised floor varies,” he said. “Sometimes it’s only a couple of feet. Sometimes it’s 3 to 4 feet. It could be even be 8 or 9 feet, depending on the history of that particular place. You might find some two-story, much older buildings transformed into ṭämpiṭavihāras in certain locations, and that’s where you will see the stone pillars 8 to 9 feet high.
“So why were they raised? The general understanding is that it’s to prevent termite attack. If the termite is climbing on these pillars, you can notice and then take care of it. Some say it’s to prevent dampness that might seep into the building and ruin its sculptures and paintings.
“But that’s not the case, because there are other image houses during the same period of time that were built right on ground, on a mud plinth. So, that particular argument doesn’t really make sense.”
Nor, he said, does he buy the argument that Burmese and Siamese monks brought this form of raised construction with them when they were brought to Sri Lanka to restore the monastic higher ordination process between the 17th and 18th centuries. That’s because Sri Lankan ṭämpiṭavihāras predate their arrival.
The answer, Silva said, came from his research into the architectural history of Sri Lanka.
“There were architectural traditions in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries to build two-story relic shrines,” he said. “In these shrines, the lowest story was used for Buddhist statuary, with images of the Buddha and his retinue and on the upper level would be the enshrinement of relics in some form. That is the tradition that slowly evolved into ṭämpiṭavihāra.”
During the Kandyan period of Sinhalese Buddhist culture — roughly 1600 to 1815 — the stūpa, a distinctive, mound-shaped building within a large temple complex, was not being built to house relics. Rather, Silva said. “It was the ṭämpiṭavihāra that played both the role of the Buddha Image house, as well as the relic-shrine together. That was the reason for their emergence and popularity during the late 13th to late 18th century period, and not due to any foreign influences or climatic reasons.”
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