Living with appending a scarlet letter: The lifelong suffering of children of alcoholics in South Korea

ABSTRACT

Children of alcoholics (COAs) are those who have grown up with parental alcoholism. The purpose of this study was to understand the lives of Korean COAs within a Korean cultural context, influenced by Confucianism. Prior literature has extensively reported about the adverse life experiences of COAs related to their alcohol dependent parents. Indeed, most of these studies assume the U.S.- or Western-centric perspective. However, in order to provide culture-specific care, health professionals who provide care for diverse ethnic families have to understand the cultural influences on the families which have an ill family member. Data were collected from 20 Korean adult children through semi-structured interviews. All interviews were audio-recorded and fully transcribed. Thematic analysis was used for the data analysis. The lives of Korean COAs were described with four themes, namely: “Losing family,” “Life with holding a bomb,” “My life ruined,” and “Being bound.” Conclusion: In conclusion, the findings of this study demonstrated how cultural components could shape individual’s life experiences in a family having an alcohol dependent family member. This study would be helpful for health professionals to deeply understand the alcoholic family members within a specific cultural background as well as to build a cultural-specific care-plans for them.

KEYWORDS:

• Children of alcoholics
• alcohol dependent parents
• alcoholic family
• Korean culture
• thematic analysis