Inter-parental cruelty is a measure of emotional or physical cruelty by the partner on the mother. The parental substance misuse scale was derived from measures of alcohol consumption, hard drug use and reported diagnoses of alcoholism. The major family problems scale reflected social services referral or foster care, either institutional or with relatives. Any occurrence gave a positive score. The percentage of children with this adversity was low at all time points, ranging from 0.8% to 1.7%.
