Formal and Informal Help-Seeking by Australian Parents who Misuse Alcohol

Parental substance misuse has a pervasive impact on family functioning, parenting, and, ultimately, child wellbeing and development. Subsequently, linkages with informal and formal support networks are crucial for ameliorating risk. To facilitate engagement with these families prior to identification in child protection systems, it is vital to understand the factors inhibiting and promoting engagement with informal and formal support. This paper examines how different factors influence informal and formal help-seeking by alcohol-misusing parents with regard to parenting and family concerns. Parents reporting alcohol problems in a clinical range (n = 322) were drawn from a representative parent sample (n = 1991). Alcohol-misusing parents reported low help-seeking for parenting-focused support services. The findings particularly highlight the role of age, education, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, parenting stress, empowerment and trust in support services for predicting parents' help-seeking. ‘Examines how different factors influence informal and formal help-seeking by alcohol-misusing parents with regard to parenting and family concerns’.