Looking into addiction I will be focusing on addiction in adolescence. As professionals working to solve the addiction problem, we need to see what the causes are and if we are keeping up with the problem. Also, we need to look at how the addiction is affecting the family.
Choate, P. (2015). Adolescent Alcoholism and Drug Addiction: The Experience of Parents. Behavioral Sciences,5(4), 461-476.
Alcoholism and drug addiction has influences on the ability of families to function. Most of the research done has looked at the adult members, limited research that discusses the effects of adolescent substance abuse on parenting and family functioning. This qualitative study looks at the parental perspective as they attempted to cope and adapt with
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People who had been important in their teen’s life no longer hold a significant role. As the addiction got worse confrontation became a normal part of the family. Parents described a reduced influence on their youth, being replaced by new peers and families that supported drug use. This isolated the majority of parents. Theme Three—Looking for Other Explanations beyond Substance Abuse, most parents spoke about the stigma surrounding substance abuse and dependence. They would look for other problems that is causing the substance abuse, such as mental illness. Other explanations offered parents a sense of hope, thinking if something else was wrong the addiction was not the child’s fault. Theme Four—Connecting to the Parent’s Own History, parents saw the issues of their youth through their own past. Parents who had a history of substance dependence were strongly influenced by those. Theme Five—Trying to Cope, parents saw their lives beginning to become chaos. The whole of the family system was affected, the child’s behavior became a higher risk and the family connection became weaker. Parents began to feel more out of control and desperate, resulting in reaching